Summary of Volume 1 of Sholokhov's novel
The novel "Quiet Flows the Don" by Sholokhov is a monumental work of Russian literature of the twentieth century. The book depicts the life of the Don Cossacks during the First World War, the 1917 revolution and the civil war in Russia. The events of the novel cover the period from May 1912 to March 1922.
Sholokhov wrote The Quiet Flows the Don for 15 years: the first three volumes of the work were created and published in 1925-1932, the fourth in 1940. In the work, the author portrayed a huge number of characters - 699, a quarter of which are genuine historical characters.
"Quiet Don" refers to the literary direction of socialist realism. The work is one of the best examples of the embodiment in Russian literature of the genres of the epic novel and the battle novel.
Read online summary"Quiet Flows the Don" by chapters and parts can be found on our website.
Main characters
Grigory Melekhov- a quick-tempered, independent Cossack, the youngest son of Panteley Melekhov, the central character of the novel with a "bestial" look "in slightly slanting slits of blue tonsils of hot eyes." In the image of Gregory, the author embodied the power of the national spirit, this is a composite image of the Don Cossacks of the early 20th century.
Petr Melekhov- the eldest son of Panteley Melekhov (6 years older than Grigory). The man "resembled his mother: small, snub-nosed, with lush wheat-colored hair, brown-eyed."
Panteley Prokofievich Melekhov- senior officer, son of Prokofy Melekhov and a captured Turkish woman, father of Peter and Grigory.
Stepan Astakhov- Melekhovs' neighbor, Aksinya's husband.
Aksinya Astakhova- Stepan's wife, Gregory's beloved.
Natalya Korshunova (Melekhova)- daughter of Miron Grigorievich Korshunov, official wife of Grigory.
Mitka Korshunov- the son of Miron Grigorievich Korshunov, the elder brother of Natalia.
Other characters
Vasilisa Ilyinichna Melekhova- wife of Panteley Melekhov, mother of Peter, Grigory and Dunyashka.
Dunyashka Melekhova- the daughter of Vasilisa and Pantelei Melekhov, the younger sister of Peter and Gregory.
Daria Melekhova- the wife of Peter Melekhov.
Miron Grigorievich Korshunov- a rich Cossack, father of Natalia and Mitka.
Sergei Platonovich Mokhov- a wealthy merchant, owner of a mill and a shop in the Tatar farm, was married twice.
Elizabeth and Vladimir Mokhov- Mokhov's children from his first wife.
Nikolai Alekseevich Listnitsky- Cossack general, owner of the Yagodnoye estate, widower.
Evgeny Listnitsky- the son of Nikolai Listnitsky, caring for Aksinya.
Shtokman Iosif Davydovich- a locksmith, a member of the RSDLP, was exiled to the Tatar farm to work.
Jack- a resident of the Tatar farm, a worker at the Mokhov mill, and then a soldier.
Mikhail Koshevoy- a poor Cossack, the same age as Grigory, was at first his friend, and then became an enemy.
Khrisanf Tokin (Christonia)- Cossack Atamansky regiment.
Ilya Bunchuk- Bolshevik, Cossack from Novocherkassk, machine gunner.
Ivan Alekseevich Sinilin (Brekh)- an old Cossack, served in the Ataman regiment.
Book one
Part one
Chapter 1
The Cossack Melekhov Prokofy returned to the penultimate Turkish company in the Tatar farm with his Turkish wife, who gave birth to a boy, Pantelei. From them came the family of the Melekhovs, nicknamed the "Turks".
When Pantelei Melekhov grew up, he married the daughter of a neighbor, a Cossack woman, Vasilisa. Pantelei and Vasilisa had two sons, Petro and Grigory, and a daughter, Dunyashka.
Chapter 2
After fishing, on the way back, Pantelei spoke with his son Grigory about Aksinya Astakhova, the wife of their neighbor Stepan Astakhov. There were rumors in the farm that Grigory was courting a woman. The father threatened his son so that he "should cover all the games from now on."
Grigory and his friend Mitka Korshunov go to the merchant Mokhov to sell the caught carp. At the merchant's, Mitka meets Mokhov's daughter, Elizaveta.
Chapters 3-4
Despite the words of his father, Grigory continues to court Aksinya.
Stepan and Peter left for the May Cossack camps, for regular training camps for those who were on preferential reserve.
Chapters 5-6
Pyotr and Stepan are going to the place of the camp gathering - Setrakov's farm with other farmers. On the way, the men stopped to spend the night at the mound. By the fire, the Cossack Khristonya told a story about how they somehow dug up a mound with their father in search of a treasure.
Chapter 7
Aksinya was married to Stepan at the age of 17. A year before the wedding, the girl was raped by her father. Upon learning of what had happened, Aksinya's brothers and mother beat Aksinya's father to death.
After the wedding with Stepan, the entire household of the Astakhovs fell on the shoulders of the daughter-in-law. Stepan could not forgive the “insults” (the girl did not save her honor before marriage) and severely beat his wife, went to other women. A year and a half later, the mother-in-law died, and after, not having lived up to a year, Aksinya's first-born also died.
Soon Grigory began to flirt with Aksinya and “she saw with horror that she was drawn to a black affectionate guy.” The woman “was frightened by this new feeling that filled her whole.”
Chapter 8
The centurion Listnitsky boasted of his horse, and he and Mitka argued who would overtake whom. In front of everyone, Mitka overtook Listnitsky.
Chapters 9-10
The Melekhovs and Aksinya drove out to the meadow mowing. In the evening, when everyone was resting, Astakhova herself approached Grigory, and they stayed all night together. Soon the whole farm heard about the incident. Panteley Prokofich personally went to Aksinya and forbade her to appear in their house, to which Aksinya said that she didn’t care: “My Grishka! My! My! I own it and I will own it! .. ". Angry, Pantelei went home and, having beaten his son, said that he would marry him the next day.
Chapters 11-13
Stepan is brought news that Aksinya is cheating on him. The man thinks about revenge on his wife and Gregory, begins to shun Peter (Gregory's brother).
A week and a half remained before the arrival of the Cossacks from the camps, but Aksinya and Grigory saw each other more and more often. In the farm they were avoided and discussed.
Chapter 14
Stepan returned to the farm. The man did not speak to his wife at first, and then unexpectedly hit her on the head. The woman ran out of the house, but her husband caught up with her and started beating her in the middle of the street. Stepan was seen by Grigory and Petro. The Melekhovs attacked Astakhov and beat them until they were separated by Khristonya, who happened to be nearby.
Chapter 15
The Melekhovs went to woo the wealthy Korshunovs in order to marry Grigory to their daughter Natalya. The Korshunovs did not immediately answer, saying that they would think about it.
Chapter 16
Stepan realized that he loved Aksinya very much only after he found out about his wife's betrayal. A man beat a woman every night, he could not forgive her for what had happened.
Aksinya still loved Grigory and hoped that he would do something for the sake of their love. However, at the meeting, Gregory said that he wanted to end their relationship forever.
Chapter 17
Peter and Gregory went to mow. Peter in a conversation mentioned the relationship between Grigory and Aksinya. Grigory went berserk and hit his brother in the side with a pitchfork.
Chapter 18-19
The Korshunovs were one of the richest on the farm, so Pantelei Prokofievich was afraid that Miron Grigoryevich would refuse the matchmakers, wanting more for his daughter. wealthy husband. However, Natalia fell in love with Gregory and they decided to arrange a wedding for the first time.
Chapter 20
Aksinya could never forget Grigory. The woman was thinking about how to "take Grishka away from the happy, neither grief nor joy of love who has not seen Natalia Korshunova."
Chapters 21-22
Wedding of Natalia and Gregory. Gregory draws attention to the shortcomings of the girl's appearance, he is angry with wedding ceremonies.
Part two
Chapter 1
The author tells in abbreviated form the history of the Mokhov family - their family came from Nikishka Mokhov, who came from Voronezh, who was the grandfather of Sergei Mokhov. Grandfather lost all his property, so the man “started business from a chipped ruble”, began trading in various agricultural goods, and rebuilt a mill. From his first wife he had two children - Liza, very similar to her mother, and Vladimir. "In the evenings, the farm intelligentsia gathered at Sergei Platonovich's".
Chapter 2
At the end of August, Mitka invited Lisa Mokhova to go fishing. While fishing, the guy and the girl, feeling mutual attraction, indulged in passion. Word quickly spread around the farm about what had happened. Mitka decided to marry Lisa. Sergei Platonovich, having learned about Mitka's intention, became very angry, refused the guy and set the dogs on him.
Chapter 3
Natalya was loved in the Melekhov family, but Grigory still could not forget Aksinya. The neighbors were also in a quarrel with Stepan and did not talk.
Chapters 4-5
Locksmith Joseph Shtokman settled in the farm. One day he manages to stop a fierce fight at the mill between the Cossacks and the Taurians, during which Mitka Korshunov beat Sergei Mokhov.
Grigory confessed to Natalya that he did not love her.
Chapter 6
A couple of weeks after the fight at the mill, an investigator and a bailiff arrived at the farm. Iosif Shtokman was summoned for interrogation. As it turned out, he had a previous conviction.
Chapter 7-8
Pantelei Prokofievich returned home after sharing the brushwood. Vasilisa Ilyinichna, complains of feeling unwell, and shares her suspicions with her husband that Natalya and Grigory have a discord in their relationship.
The men of the Melekhov family went to work, on the way they met Stepan, who was leading unharnessed bulls to the farm, leaving the broken sleigh guarded by Aksinya. Grigory waited until everyone had left in order to be alone with the woman. Aksinya admitted that there is “no urine” to live without him.
Chapter 9
In the evenings, Cossacks and workers gathered at Shtokman - Khristonya, Jack, Kotlyarov Ivan Alekseevich, Filka the Chebotar, Mishka Koshevoy. Shtokman read to them in Nekrasov's voice and " Brief history Don Cossacks”, everyone discussed what they had read. Joseph "sharpened, like a worm, wood, simple concepts and skills, inspired disgust and hatred for the existing system"
Chapter 10
Grigory and Mitka took the oath, becoming real Cossacks.
Returning home, Grigory found out that Natalya was going to leave him. The man replied that he would not hold the woman by force. After drinking, Grigory went to spend the night with Mikhail Koshevoy, and in the morning met with Aksinya. The woman was ready to give up everything and start living with Gregory, but she could not tell him that she was pregnant.
Chapter 11
In the morning Grigory went to Mokhov, where he met Listnitsky. Listnitsky took Grigory to work as a coachman, promising to make Aksinya a "black cook".
Chapters 12-13
One evening, Mishka Koshevoy's sister ran up to Aksinya and told the woman to quickly pack her things and quickly go to them. Stepan returned when his wife was gone. Finding a forgotten blouse, he cut it into pieces in a rage.
Natalia returned to her parents.
Chapter 14
Yevgeny Listnitsky served in the Life Guards of the Ataman Regiment, but after an injury at the races, he came to Yagodnoye to his father. From the first days of Aksinya's appearance in Yagodnoye, Evgeny began to show an active interest in her.
Chapters 15-16
One evening at Shtokman's, on Good Thursday, they started talking about the fact that a war "between Germany and France for the vineyards" would soon begin, "the struggle of the capitalist states for markets and colonies." Shtokman said that their farm would also be in the war zone.
“On Easter night,” when people gathered at the church, an excited Mitka drove up to the crowd, and finding his father, said that “Natalya is dying!”
Chapter 17-19
Natalya, missing her husband greatly, decided to write a letter to Grigory secretly from her parents to find out if the man was going to return. In response, the husband sent a few words: “Live alone. Melekhov Grigory.
On the eve of Easter, Natalya, trying to control herself and not burst into tears, got ready and went to the church. On the way, she heard the guys say that Gregory had left her, because she "got mixed up with her father-in-law, with the lame Pantelei." Unable to stand it, Natalya went to the barn and "cut [herself] with a sharp point in the throat."
On the hunt, Grigory and old Listnitsky, who knows where Stepan came from, helps to catch hardened wolf. Stepan promised Grigory that "sooner or later" he would kill him.
Chapter 20
Aksinya confessed to Grigory that she was pregnant, saying that this was his child. During the mowing, Aksinya began to have contractions. Grigory, putting her on a wagon, thought that he would have time to take her to the estate, but his wife gave birth on a wagon.
Chapter 21
Aksinya gave birth to a girl. In December, Grigory was given a notice in the village administration that after Christmas he would need to appear at the collection site. Unexpectedly, Pantelei Prokofievich arrived in Yagodnoe to see his son off to the Cossack service. The man did not even speak to Aksinya.
Gregory was assigned to an army regiment.
Part three
Chapter 1
After the suicide attempt, Natalia survived. Relatives began to treat the woman coldly, and Natalya began to live in her father-in-law's house. Wishing to reconcile Natalya and Grigory, Pantelei asked his son in letters where he was going to live after the service. Grigory replied that he would return to Aksinya.
Dunyasha Melekhova grew up and began to go to games. The girl tells Natalia about her relationship with Mishka Koshev.
Shtokman was arrested and taken away from the farm under escort - it turned out that Joseph was a member of the RSDLP (Russian Social Democratic Labor Party), they found books prohibited by law from him.
Chapter 2
Gregory's regiment is in the Radziwillovo estate. The warmasters mocked the Cossacks, but Grigory fought back as best he could. The Cossacks raped the maid Franya with the whole platoon. Grigory tried to stop them, but they tied him up and threatened to kill him if he told anyone about what had happened.
Chapters 3-5
Military mobilization began in the farm. “Four days later, the red trains took the Cossacks with regiments and batteries to the Russian-Austrian border.”
Gregory learns that there will be a war, his regiment comes to the border. During the battle at the Verba station, Grigory killed an Austrian, during the battle the man experienced mixed feelings - "I bend and bewilderment crumpled my soul."
Chapters 6-7
The Cossacks of the second draft on the way to the army (among them Petro and Stepan) spend the night on the Yeya farm, staying with their grandfather, a participant in the Russian-Turkish war. The old man advised them: in order to go through the war and survive, it is important not to take someone else's, not to offend women and read prayers.
Mitka ended up in the 3rd Don Cossack Regiment named after Ermak Timofeevich.
Chapters 8-9
Stepan Astakhov was appointed head of the post. Looking around the territory, the Cossack saw the Germans approaching on horseback. During the battle with the enemy, Stepan killed an officer and the Germans, left without a commander, fled.
The merits of Stepan and other Cossacks during the battle with the Germans went unnoticed - Kryuchkov, the favorite of the commander of the hundred, received the award and all the glory. “But it happened like this: people collided on the field of death, who had not yet had time to break their hands in the destruction of their own kind, in the animal horror that declared them, they stumbled, knocked together, delivered blind blows, disfigured themselves and horses and fled, frightened by a shot that killed a man, dispersed, morally crippled. They called it a feat."
Chapter 10
Gregory, after his first battle, “hardly broke the tedious inner pain in himself,” recalling the constantly killed Austrian.
At the end of August, reinforcements arrived from the Don to Gregory's regiment, which was near Leshniuv. Among the arrivals were many farmers and Petro. After talking with his brother, Grigory learned that Natalya lives in their house and yearns for her husband. On the way, the brothers met Stepan, who made it clear to Grigory that he had not forgiven his offense and would take revenge.
Chapter 11
Pages from the notebook - the diary of the Cossack Timothy, which Grigory found next to the murdered man. Timofey describes his romance with Elizaveta Mokhova. The girl insulted Timothy, demanded significant expenses from him. When Elizabeth left the man, he went to war.
Chapter 12
At the front, Grigory met the cruel, “blood-loving” Chubaty (Aleksey Uryupin), who began to teach Melekhov the Baklanov strike with a saber, instructed to be cruel to the enemy and people: “to kill the enemy in battle is a sacred thing.”
Chapter 13
In one of the battles, Gregory killed a Hungarian officer, but after that someone hit him in the head from behind, and the man lost consciousness.
Chapters 14-15
Evgeny Listnitsky, wanting to accomplish a feat in the name of the Russian monarchy, decided to transfer to a Cossack army regiment. He was assigned to the headquarters in Bereznyaga. Yevgeny became friends with the volunteer Ilya Bunchuk and helped him in his appointment to the machine gun brigade.
Chapters 16-17
Melekhov receives news of Grigory's death. The family greatly grieved for Gregory, they celebrated a wake, inviting priest Vissarion. However, a letter soon arrived from Peter with the message that Grigory was actually alive, awarded the St. George Cross and appointed junior officer.
Chapter 18
Natalya missed Gregory very much, hoping that upon returning from the war, he would return to her. The woman, realizing that she is doing a stupid act, decides to go to Aksinya and ask her rival to return her husband to her.
While Peter was at war, Daria changed a lot. She went to games, accepted the courtship of the young men who remained on the farm.
Chapter 19
Aksinya received infrequent letters from Grigory about how he was living in the war.
On Sunday, Natalya came to Aksinya. Aksinya felt like a winner and mockingly talked with Natalya, humiliated the woman. Natalya was especially struck by the fact that her rival's daughter looked like Gregory. "Sobbing and swaying," Natalya left.
Chapters 20-21
When Grigory woke up after being wounded, he slowly walked east, picking up a wounded officer along the way. Soon they were noticed by the Cossacks and taken to the dressing point. For saving the life of officer Georgy, he was awarded the St. George Cross of the 4th degree.
As soon as Melekhov returned to the regiment, machine-gun bombardment from an airplane began. During the shelling, Grigory was wounded in the eye, and the front-line doctor sent the man for treatment to Moscow - to the eye clinic of Dr. Snegirev.
Chapter 22
During the shelling by the Austrians, the centurion Listnitsky was wounded in the head and leg. Wounded Eugene was sent to a Warsaw hospital.
In Yagodnoye, Aksinya's daughter fell ill with scarlet fever and soon died. Eugene came to the estate after treatment on vacation. The man again began to court Aksinya, and the woman, "burdened with despair", could not refuse him.
Chapter 23
In the hospital of Snegirev, Gregory met the Ukrainian Andriy Garanzha, who quite harshly scolded power, war, and everything that he did not like. “With horror, Grigory realized that the smart and evil Ukrainian was gradually, steadily destroying all his previous ideas about the king, the homeland, about his Cossack military duty.”
At the end of October, Gregory was sent to a hospital in Tver to heal a wound on his head. When he, as a hero, was introduced to the “person of the imperial family” who arrived at the hospital, the man deliberately behaved disrespectfully, for which he was deprived of food for three days, and then sent home.
Chapter 24
Returning to Yagodnoye, Grigory learned from the groom Listnitsky, Sashka's grandfather, about Aksinya's betrayal with Yevgeny. Melekhov, pretending not to know anything, offered Yevgeny a ride in a cab and, moving away from home, whipped his opponent with a whip and beat him with his feet. Returning to the estate, Grigory struck Aksinya in the face with a whip and hurried away to his parents' house. The man stayed with Natalia.
book two
Part Four
Chapter 1
1916, October. Listnitsky, Bunchuk and other officers are discussing the possibility of rebellions at the front. Bunchuk admits that he is a member of the RSDLP (Russian Social Democratic Labor Party) and speaks about the inevitability of the revolution,
which will lead to the establishment of a civil dictatorship. Yevgeny hurried to inform the military leadership about this conversation, but on the same night, Bunchuk deserted.
Chapter 2
In the morning, leaflets of the Bolsheviks appeared in the trenches with appeals: “Proletarians of all countries, unite! .. Down with the autocracy! Down with the imperialist war! Long live the indestructible unity of the working people of the whole world!” . The officers made a thorough search, trying to find a distributor among the Cossacks, but found nothing. At this time, Bunchuk goes to "his" people and they help him get fake documents.
Chapter 3
With the headquarters of the 80th division, a Cossack hundred, consisting of third-order fighters from the Tatar farm, also moved to the place of close fighting. During a search of dugouts in a village, Valet runs into an Austrian soldier and lets him go, having learned that the enemy, like him, is a Social Democrat.
Chapter 4
Being at home, Grigory, surrounded by the love of his family, still could not forget Aksinya. Returning to the front, Melekhov "caught the opportunity to show selfless courage, took risks, went crazy." “The heart has hardened, hardened, like a salt marsh in a drought, and just as the salt marsh does not absorb water, so Gregory’s heart did not absorb pity. With cold contempt he played with someone else's life and with his own. For his exploits, Gregory received four St. George's crosses and four medals.
During one of the attacks of the enemy, Gregory was again badly wounded.
Melekhov became friends with Chubaty, who promoted the denial of the war.
Chapters 5-6
Panteley's life was difficult without the help of his sons, but he managed the household as best he could. The joy of the old man was Natalya, who helped her father-in-law with all her might, and soon gave birth to a boy and a girl from Grigory.
Daria continued to cheat on Petra, rumors reached her husband that the woman was walking even with Stepan. Judging by the conversations, Astakhov died at the front, so Melekhov thought only about revenge on his wife - he wanted to knock out her eye. Unable to bear the rumors of the people, Pantelei flogged his daughter-in-law with a belt.
Chapter 7
Mokhov is told that the autocracy has been overthrown. Soon the farm will learn about it. The Cossacks, excited by the news, come to Sergey Platonovich for advice on how to live now, to which the man replied: “They will compare you with the peasants, deprive you of privileges, and even remember old grievances. Hard times are coming." Mokhov thinks that he has been working in vain all his life, making capital. The man worries about the children, although he understands that they are like strangers to him - the daughter in the letter has little interest in his life, but only asks her father for money.
Mokhov goes to Yagodnoye, Evgeny tells him that "the soldiers have turned into gangs of criminals, unbridled and wild."
Chapters 8-9
The army announced the overthrow of Nicholas II. The Cossacks were forced to swear allegiance to the Provisional Government. People were tired of the war, everyone understood that if at least one rushes on the run, then many desert after him.
Daria came to the front to see Peter. The man was so happy with his wife that he even forgot about his intention to take revenge.
Chapter 10
Yevgeny Listnitsky was transferred to the 14th regiment, in which most of the Cossacks adhered to the ideas of restoring the dynasty.
Chapter 11
General Kornilov was appointed commander-in-chief of the Southwestern Front. Listnitsky is trying to convince the officers to support Kornilov - to start holding political conversations among the Cossacks in order to get them out of Bolshevik influence.
Chapters 12-14
Listnitsky's plans did not bear fruit - the Cossacks did not want to support the monarchy.
Eugene meets in Petrograd with familiar officers. Listnitsky learns from them that Kornilov is going to seize power by establishing his dictatorship in Russia, and also turn the Cossacks into the main force of the counter-revolution.
The Bolsheviks plan to arrest Kornilov.
Chapter 15
Officers send echelons of Cossacks to reinforce Kornilov's forces. Among the Cossacks, the ideas of Kerensky (Minister-Chairman of the Provisional Government) are spreading, but people do not like dual power, they believe that the authorities “hang a noose” on them.
Ivan Alekseevich Sinilin, an old Cossack, is firmly convinced that he will stand for the power that will come - for the Bolsheviks. The Cossack arranges a coup in his regiment and refuses to lead people to Petrograd to help Kornilov.
Chapters 16-17
Kornilov understands that the failure of his plans cannot be avoided, however, he asks for help from Kaledin (leader of the White movement). At one of the stations, Bunchuk sits next to the Cossacks who are going to help the commander-in-chief. The man talks about the situation in Petrograd, propagating people the idea of the need to resist the power of Kornilov.
The next day, a rally was held among the Cossacks. The officers tried to prevent Bunchuk, but could not resist the Cossacks. When officer Kalmykov began to persuade the Cossacks to leave for Petrograd to fight for Kornilov, Bunchuk shot him.
Chapter 18
Instead of Kornilov, the Provisional Government appointed General Alekseev to the post of commander-in-chief. Kornilov was soon arrested.
Chapter 19
Listnitsky is preparing Cossack troops to fight in support of Kornilov. After the order to prepare for the battle, most of the Cossacks went over to the side of the "Reds".
Chapter 20
While in prison in Bykhovo, Kornilov learns about the October Revolution. At this time, Kornilov's accomplice Kaledin was gathering forces on the Don, uniting the Terek, Kuban and Don troops. Since they guarded Kornilov only conditionally, at the right moment the prisoner freely left the place of detention.
Chapter 21
After the October Revolution, a large number of Cossacks deserted. Koshevoy, having caught three deserters, let them go, realizing: “what am I ... myself against the war, but I keep people - what rights do I have?” .
Part Five
Chapter 1
During the war, many Cossacks of the Tatar farm were killed, and Petro Melekhov returned among the survivors. He said that Gregory went over to the side of the Bolsheviks.
Chapter 2
Having become the commander of hundreds of Red Guards, Grigory meets the Cossack Izvarin, who preached the idea of autonomy for the Cossacks - an independent Don state led by the Cossack Circle. Izvarin believed that after the victory of the revolution, the Bolsheviks would also seize the Cossack possessions.
In November 1917, Grigory met Fyodor Podtelkov, commander of the revolutionary Cossacks, who promoted the idea that the Cossacks needed people's power.
Chapter 3
Russian generals and soldiers who fled from the Bolshevik revolution came to Novocherkassk. Control over the situation in the city fell on the shoulders of Kaledin.
Chapters 4-5
Bunchuk goes to Rostov, where the party leadership gives him the task of organizing a machine-gun team. 16 people were identified as students for the man, among whom was a young Jewish woman Anna Pogudko. Teaching people how to handle a machine gun, a man Special attention devoted to Anna, gradually falling in love with a woman.
Chapter 6
At the end of November, the offensive of the White Guards on Rostov began, the machine gunners were to be the first to meet them. Bunchuk's team managed to provide cover for a counterattack.
Chapter 7
With varying success, the fighting continued for 6 days. It was hard for Anna to kill people, and Bunchuk tried to support the woman whenever possible.
Bunchuk fell ill with typhus, he was getting worse.
Chapters 8-9
The Bolsheviks decided to hold a Cossack congress in the village of Kamenskaya in order to attract the Cossacks to their side. Ivan Alekseevich and Khristonya invited people from their farm, Pyotr Melekhov and Mitka Korshunov immediately refused.
After the congress, power in the village was transferred to the VRC (Military Revolutionary Committee), whose chairman was elected Podtelkov, secretary - Krivoshlykov. The VRC sent a delegation to Novocherkassk.
Chapters 10-11
In Novocherkassk, the delegation of the Military Revolutionary Committee was greeted very hostilely and taken under escort to the hall of the regional government, where Kaledin himself arrived. After a long discussion of the transfer of power to the VRK, the Don white government refused to comply with the committee's demands.
At this time, the White Guard troops under the command of Chernetsov captured the village of Kamenskaya, displacing the Red Guards.
Chapter 12
Being in the Kamenskaya village, Grigory learns that Yevgeny Listnitsky is also staying here. Melekhov understands that his feelings for Aksinya have not disappeared, and therefore cannot forgive the opponent.
Grigory with the Red Guards departs from Kamenka to Glubokaya. In the morning the White Guards entered Glubokaya, the Cossacks began to scatter randomly. However, thanks to the active resistance of the "Reds", among whom were Grigory Melekhov and the machine gunner Anna, the Bolsheviks won. The battle ended with the bloody massacre of the Reds over the captured Whites on the orders of Podtelkov, this greatly impressed Grigory.
Chapter 13
During the battle near Glubokaya Gregory was wounded in the leg. He spent a week in the infirmary, and then his father took him home. Panteley was dissatisfied with his son, as he went over to the side of the Bolsheviks. Grigory tried to defend his innocence, but in the depths of his soul he was tormented by doubts - the man could not forgive the Red Army soldiers for the massacre of prisoners.
At home, Gregory was welcomed by the whole family. The Cossack noticed that Natasha "bloomed and got prettier", for the first time he took the already grown children in his arms.
Chapters 14-15
The Red Guard strengthened its positions after the workers' uprising in Taganrog. Kaledin, having learned that the Volunteer Army had retreated to the Kuban, transferred power to the city duma, resigned and shot himself.
Chapters 16-17
Bunchuk, suffering from typhus, was unconscious for three weeks, he was transferred to Tsaritsyn. Anna was with the man all the time. When Bunchuk recovered a little, they moved to Voronezh, where they had to leave. Anna was sent to campaign in Lugansk, and Bunchuk was to serve on the Southern Front.
Chapter 18
In the south, power passed into the hands of General Nazarov. Mobilization was announced, which the Cossacks refused to obey. Thanks to active Bolshevik agitation, some Cossack regiments went over to the side of the enemy.
On February 9, Captain Chernov's detachment entered Rostov. Yevgeny Listnitsky was also in one of his regiments. He missed Yagodny very much, remembered his father and Aksinya.
Chapter 19
Bunchuk with the Red Guards is at the Krivlyanskaya station. The Bolsheviks arrest the head of the Cossack Circle of Nazarov.
Bunchuk is transferred to Sivers' headquarters in Rostov, where he meets Anna. The woman invites him to settle in her place, as her relatives live in the city.
Chapter 20
In March, Bunchuk was transferred to serve in the Revolutionary Tribunal. The man had to command the execution of "enemies of the revolution" every night. This greatly exhausted Bunchuk, and Anna tried to persuade him to leave the post, but the man assured her: “I am strong ... Don’t think that there are people made of iron. We are all cast from the same material ... There are no people in life who are not afraid in war, and those who, when killing people, would not wear ... were not morally scratched. Soon, murders and robberies began in the city, and at his own request, Bunchuk was returned to the Revolutionary Committee.
Chapter 21
A detachment of Red Guards stopped at Setrakov Farm. Having drunk, the Bolsheviks began to commit excesses. Having hastily gathered an army, the Cossacks defeated the rowdy "Reds".
At the end of April, unrest began in the upper villages of the Donetsk district - the farms broke away, forming the Verkhnedonsky district, headed by General Alferov.
Chapters 22-23
Some of the Bolsheviks (including Koshevoy and Jack), having learned about the ongoing defeat of the "Reds", decided to leave the Tatar farm. Grigory, Khristonya and Ivan Alekseevich stayed - everyone had their own reasons for that.
In connection with the raids of the "Reds" on the Setrakovskaya village, a Cossack meeting was held on the Maidan. To protect the Cossack households in the farm, they decided to form a detachment of front-line soldiers, restoring Cossack self-government. The people chose Miron Korshunov as the ataman, and Pyotr Melekhov as the commander of the detachment. The Cossacks join the regiment, thinking that there will be no war.
Chapters 24-25
The Red Army retreated from Rostov. Bunchuk and Anna were waiting for the Cossacks on the outskirts of one of the villages. Seeing the approaching enemy, the woman led the soldiers behind her, despite the fact that Bunchuk tried to stop her. During the shelling of the Cossacks, Anna receives a fatal bullet and dies in the arms of Bunchuk.
Chapter 26
For Bunchuk, Anna's death became a tragedy - "he lived as if in a typhoid delirium", "the feelings in him temporarily atrophied: he did not want anything, he did not think about anything."
In the south, under the onslaught of the German invaders, the "Reds" have to retreat through the Don region.
Chapter 27
The closer the Red Guards moved to the Don stations, the more hostile and wary they were met by the local population. The soldiers noticed the Cossack patrol and began to prepare for the attack.
Chapters 28-29
The surrounded Red Guards under the command of Podtelkov had to surrender. The soldiers were disarmed and locked in a barn in the neighboring Ponomarev farm. The Cossacks decided to execute the prisoners.
Chapter 30
In the morning, a detachment of Peter Melekhov arrived at the farm. Peter is offered to allocate shooters for execution. Melekhov refuses, but Mitka Korshunov himself volunteers to participate in the execution.
During the execution, Grigory, squeezing through the crowd, finds himself near Podtelkov. The words of the commander of the “reds”: “Well, are you shooting brothers? Turned around? .. What are you like ... Do you serve both ours and yours? Who will give more? touched Melekhov to the quick. The man remembered Podtelkov how he himself ordered the execution of prisoners.
Podtelkov was the last to be executed. Before the hanging, the commander said that "Soviet power will be established throughout Russia." It was not possible to hang the man right away - he reached the ground with his feet, so he had to be hanged twice.
Chapter 31
Knave and Mishka Koshevoy left the village of Karginskaya, but near the Nizhne-Yablonovsky farm they were caught by the Cossacks. Knave was killed on the spot, and Koshevoy, since he was a Cossack, was flogged publicly with rods, but left alive. The next day, "Mishka was sent to the front." Two days later, Valet was buried. “Soon an old man came from a nearby farm, dug a hole in the head of the grave, and placed a chapel on a freshly planed oak abutment. Under its triangular canopy, in the darkness, a mournful face glowed mother of god» .
Book Three
Part six
Chapter 1
“In April 1918, the great division on the Don ended”: most of the Cossacks from the northern district went over to the side of the Red Army, the “Nizovtsy” “chased them and pushed them to the borders of the region” . At the end of April, the Don was completely liberated from the Red Army, the Cossacks decided to re-create the Circle. Panteley Melekhov and Bogatyrev became delegates from Tatarsky Khutor.
The Upper Don Cossacks were expecting a German attack. Soon the enemy appeared - first the Germans met Miron Korshunov (they tried to take away the horses from the Cossack, but he fought back), and then Panteley Melekhov. The German gave instructions to Panteley on how to choose power: “Remember that you need reasonable power. Choose a president, a tsar, anyone, only on the condition that this person is not deprived of state intelligence and will be able to conduct a policy loyal to our state.
General Krasnov was elected ataman.
Chapters 2-3
The Germans began to behave like masters on the Don - "red trains of wagons rolled from the Don through Ukraine, taking wheat flour, eggs, butter, bulls to Germany." "And on the border with Ukraine, young Cossacks fought with the Petliurites".
The Cossack hundred under the command of Peter Melekhov was included in the 22nd regiment and, by order of the authorities, the Cossacks advanced behind the retreating Reds. On the way, Peter spoke with Gregory about whether he would go over to the side of the communists if something happened. The younger brother replied that he was not sure for sure. Peter answered: “Look how the people were divided, bastards! As if they drove with a plow: one - in one direction, the other - in the other, as if under a plowshare. Damn life, and a terrible time! .
Koshevoy returned to Veshenskaya, became a "atarshchik" (groom).
Chapter 4
Opposition appeared on the Don under the leadership of General Denikin, who did not like the actions of Krasnov, who let the Germans into the Don.
In Russia, a “white” Eastern Front begins to form, aimed at forgiving the Bolsheviks and the Germans.
Chapter 5
During the retreat of the Kornilovites from Rostov to the Kuban, Yevgeny Listnitsky, who was among the White Guards, was wounded twice. To improve his health, the man stayed with a friend of Gorchakov in Novocherkassk and falls in love with Gorchakov's wife, Olga Nikolaevna.
Listnitsky and Gorchakov are going to the front. Yevgeny's friend receives a mortal wound and asks Listnitsky not to leave Olga alone, to marry her. In the next battle, Yevgeny's hand was crushed by a shell and after it had to be amputated. Listnitsky understands that the time has come to leave military service. Olga herself comes to Evgeny in the hospital. Soon they got married and went to live in Yagodnoye.
Chapter 6
Koshevoy was sent on a business trip to the capital for excellent service. On the way, Mishka met Stepan Astakhov, who had changed beyond recognition, who was considered dead in the farm. Stepan said that after being wounded he came to the Germans, recovered and settled in a foreign country, but after that he began to yearn for his homeland and decided to return.
Chapter 7
Returning to the Tatar farm, Stepan stayed with his wife Anikushka. Astakhov learns about Aksinya's life and persuades her to return home. The woman at first refuses, but having received a settlement from the Listnitskys, she herself comes to Stepan.
Chapters 8-9
Grigory leads his hundred for the Don. After the fighting, the Cossacks looted and looted. Gregory forbade robbing the vanquished. The authorities found out about this and, suspecting an accomplice of the Bolsheviks in Melekhov, deprived the man of a hundred, appointing him a platoon commander.
Panteley and Daria come to Grigory in the regiment. As it turned out, they had already visited Peter, where they received a decent share of the loot and expected the same “gifts” from their youngest son. Upon learning of this, Gregory became angry and quarreled with his father. Pantelei was very upset when he learned that his son had been demoted to a platoon.
Chapter 10
The Cossacks begin to retreat. Grigory arbitrarily leaves the regiment and goes home.
Chapters 11-12
The tension in the Cossack units grew: people began to be more and more hostile to each other. Pyotr Melekhov understands that if he does not “grind” into the confidence of ordinary Cossacks, he can be shot like other officers.
Red agitators freely penetrated the Cossack environment, but their propaganda remained incomprehensible to many Cossacks. Unable to bear the tension, Petro went home to the farm.
Chapter 13
Returning home, Peter told his family about the critical situation on the Northern Front, the inevitability of the retreat of the Cossacks. After discussing their situation, the Melekhovs decide to stay in Tatarsky.
Chapter 14
General Krasnov is losing his position, and then the respect of the Cossacks.
Chapters 15-16
Red Army soldiers entered the farm, five of them stopped at the Melekhovs for the night. One of the guests behaved unworthily - he shot the owner's dog, and then quarreled with Grigory. The Red Commissar took the soldier away, promising to try him for "behavior unworthy of a Red Army soldier." In the morning the commander apologized to the Melekhovs for the soldiers and paid for their stay.
Chapter 17
The regiments of the Red Army soldiers continued to march through the farm. To prevent the Bolsheviks from taking the horses away, Pantelei deliberately injured their legs. Somehow the Reds arranged a party at Anikushka's and invited the Cossacks. Learning in Gregory white officer, the Reds decided to shoot him, but the man was warned in time, and he fled for the Don.
Chapter 18
The power of the Bolsheviks was established in the Tatar farm. Ivan Alekseevich was elected the Red Ataman, Koshevoy was his deputy. The Cossacks were forced to hand over their weapons.
Chapter 19
There were rumors that the Red Tribunals were traveling along the Don, carrying out a ferocious massacre of the Cossacks. The Melekhovs surrendered their weapons, but Pantelei nevertheless hid his rifles and machine gun.
Pantelei falls ill with typhus.
Chapters 20-21
Returning to the farm, Grigory went to Ivan Alekseevich. The men begin to argue about the meaning of Bolshevik power. Grigory believes that this government is bad, because the communists have not yet given anything to the Cossacks, but many have lost their lives, he does not believe in possible equality. Melekhov could not be persuaded, and Ivan Alekseevich and Koshevoy became very angry with the Cossack.
Chapter 22
Chekists arrived in the Tatarsky farm and began to carry out reprisals against the "enemies of the revolution" - to shoot the Cossacks.
Chapter 23
The Reds shot Miron Korshunov. Peter, at the request of Lukinichna, at night with another Cossack found Miron's body and took it to the Korshunovs for farewell.
Chapter 24
The management of the Revolutionary Committee passed into the hands of Shtokman. On May 4, Ivan Alekseevich gathered Cossacks on the Maidan to talk about the Bolshevik government - the farmers believed that people were executed in vain, they were sure that the Communists wanted to destroy them. Shtokman read out a list with the names of "enemies of the revolution", among which were the Melekhovs.
Chapter 25
Upon learning of Grigory's return, Shtokman ordered the arrest of the man and a search of the Melekhovs' to find hidden weapons. Gregory was not at home. Shtokman and Koshev tried to find Melekhov in Singin, but to no avail.
Chapter 26
Having recovered from typhus, Pantelei was arrested by the communists. Peter told Grigory about what had happened, advising his brother to go to Rybny Khutor to his relatives, promising to tell everyone that Grigory was with his aunt in Singin.
Chapter 27
Cossack uprisings break out in the farms. Koshevoy, frightened by the riots, leaves Veshenskaya for the Tatar farm. However, on the way, Antip Brekhovich saw Mishka, severely wounded him with a pitchfork and left him to die. Waking up, Koshevoy hid at Astakhov's, and the next day, on the advice of his mother, he left the farm.
Chapter 28
Having learned about the Cossack uprising, Grigory returns to the farm to investigate the situation. The man firmly decided to fight for the Cossacks: “People have always fought for a piece of bread, for a plot of land, for the right to life and will fight as long as the sun shines on them, while warm blood oozes through their veins.”
Chapter 29
Koshevoy reached the Big Farm, which was still under the rule of the Bolsheviks. The bear was detained, but Shtokman, who was in the farm, explained to the Reds that he was his own.
Chapters 30-31
Two hundred Cossacks formed in Tatarsky. Peter was appointed commander of the cavalry hundred. Gregory led some of the Cossacks into reconnaissance, and during one of the skirmishes with the Bolsheviks, the rebels captured the commander of the Red Army, Likhachev. Likhachev did not want to agree to the conditions of the rebels and he was killed.
Chapter 32
The uprisings of the Cossacks spread throughout the Don, battles were already fought almost near Tatarsky itself.
Chapters 33-34
In one of the battles, the Reds made their way to the rear of the rebels. The Cossacks of Peter hid from the enemies in a ravine. Koshevoy promised to let the rebels go if they surrendered. However, when the rebels came out of hiding, Koshevoy shot Peter, and the rest of the Reds hacked to pieces.
Chapter 35
Gregory was appointed commander of the Veshensky regiment. In early March, Melekhov led people on the offensive and the Reds lost ground. The rebel regiment expanded. Grigory avenged his brother, brutally cracking down on captured Red Guards.
Chapters 36-37
From the headquarters, Grigory was instructed not to kill the prisoners, but to send them for interrogation. However, Melekhov ignored the recommendations, believing that he knew better how to act. Gregory led people into the attack himself, proving his military prowess many times in practice. Gradually, Melekhov began to get tired of the responsibility for the Cossacks, he suddenly woke up pity for the prisoners.
Chapter 38
By order of Kudinov, Grigory arrives in Veshenskaya. After a military council with Kudinov, Grigory realizes that the supposedly free rebels are led by the same white generals: “Scientists have confused us ... They have confused the Lord! They hobbled life and do their business with our hands. In a trifle - and then you can’t trust anyone ... ".
Chapters 39-40
End of March. At the front, a balance of forces was established, which suspended for a couple of months fighting. “After fleeing from Tatarsky, Shtokman, Koshevoy, Ivan Alekseevich landed on the 4th Zaamursky regiment,” and then, through Ust-Khoperskaya, they went with other Reds to the Krutovsky farm.
Chapters 41-42
Stanitsa Karginskaya - a stronghold of the rebels, defended under the leadership of Gregory. According to Melekhov's plan, the Cossacks managed to defeat the Reds.
The rebels had a lot of vodka in stocks, so the days of the Cossacks passed in constant revelry, relaxing the army. Gregory begins to be tormented by unkind thoughts, he felt the satiety of life, he wanted to die. He also starts drinking and going to women. Once, during a drinking bout, the Cossack Medvedev offered Grigory to take Kudinov's place, but Melekhov refused.
Chapter 43
The Cossacks were exhausted by the war, fearlessly went into battle, mocked the prisoners. Kudinov led propaganda among the rebels that they should forget about the upcoming spring work in the field and continue to fight.
Chapter 44
Melekhov almost lost the battle near Klimovka: he turned the Cossacks in time and attacked the red machine gunners. However, after the battle, Grigory lost his nerve and for the first time in his life he thrashed in a severe fit, the Cossacks had to tie him up.
Chapter 45
Grigory arrived in Veshenskaya, where the Cossacks told him that the new rebel government mocked people more than the communists. The Cossacks imprison even women and the elderly for being related to those who sided with the communists. Angry, Gregory released all the prisoners from prison.
Chapter 46
The Cossacks began to desert, leave the front, as the sowing season began. Gregory came to the farm to sow his land and the land of his mother-in-law. During Melekhov’s conversation with grandfather Grishaka, the old man reads the Bible to the man, arguing that the Cossacks themselves do not understand why they are fighting, because “all power is from God”, so she does not need to resist.
Natalya reproaches her husband about drunkenness and wild life at the front, especially the woman was angered by Daria's comic flirting with Grigory. Husband and wife quarrel.
Chapter 47
The former red commissar Voronovsky (now an officer in the tsarist army, commander of the Serdobsky regiment, which includes Shtokman, Koshevoy and Ivan Alekseevich) goes over to the side of the Cossacks. Kudinov receives the regiment, instructing the Serdobsky soldiers to extradite the communists, and then send the prisoners to Veshenskoye, where the locals will lynch them. In the event of disorder, the trusted soldiers were ordered to be killed.
Chapter 48
“On April 12, the 1st Moscow Regiment was brutally battered in battle with the rebels near the Antoyov farm of the Yelanskaya village. Poorly knowing the area, the Red Army chains went down to the farm with a fight. During the battle, Ivan Alekseevich was wounded in the leg.
Shtokman notices that the Serdobians do not want to fight the Cossacks and, suspecting that Voronovsky is agitating the fighters against the Communists, sends Koshevoy with a report to the political department.
Chapter 49
In the morning, the Serdobians gathered a rally. When Shtokman began to call on people to fight the whites, he was shot. Ivan Alekseevich and other communists were arrested.
Chapter 50
Grigory did not stay long at the farm - five days later he was informed about the uprising of the Serdobsky regiment. Melekhov was about to leave for his Cossacks in Karginskaya, but he met Aksinya near the river. The man decides to postpone his departure. Pantelei, who saw them, was very angry, but he could no longer reproach his son for anything, because now Grigory was a general.
In the evening, Aksinya, having bribed Daria with a ring, asked the woman to call Gregory to her. At night, Melekhov came to Astakhova.
Chapter 51
Returning home the next day, Grigory lied to Natalya that he had talked with Kudinov at night.
Melekhov left the farm. In Karginskaya, Grigory is given command of the 1st division. Melekhov receives a letter from Kudinov, with the message that the Serdobsky regiment went over to the side of the Cossacks, and the communists were also captured. Grigory decides to release Koshevoy and Ivan Alekseevich in order to find out who killed Peter.
Chapters 52-53
Bogatyrev flies in an airplane to Singin Farm with the news that soon the Don army, having broken through the front, will join the Cossacks.
Chapter 54
The captured Reds, who were given out by the Serdobsky soldiers, were taken under escort for trial to Veshenskaya. Among them was Ivan Alekseevich. On the way, the captives were severely beaten by the furious inhabitants of the farms.
Chapter 55
The high command of the rebel forces decided to ask for help from the Don government. The authorities agreed to cooperate - they began to send people and weapons.
Chapter 56
The beaten captive Red Guards were brought to Tatarsky, where they were surrounded by farmers. Seeing Ivan Alekseevich among the communists, Daria, having avenged her husband, shot the man with a rifle. Gregory was late for the massacre. Having learned about the death of Ivan Alekseevich, and also that Koshevoy and Shtokman were not among the prisoners, Melekhov went to the front.
Chapters 57-58
In May, the Reds began an active offensive against the rebels. Gregory was summoned to Veshenskaya for a meeting. Kudinov ordered Melekhov to break through the front on his own. Grigory wrote Aksinya a letter so that she would go with him.
Chapter 59
“On May 22, the retreat of the rebel troops began along the entire right bank. Parts retreated with a fight, lingering at each line. The population of the farms of the steppe strip rushed to the Don in a panic.
Chapter 60
Farmer Prokhor Zykov gives Aksinya a note from Grigory. The Cossacks report that the Reds are occupying farms, burning down the huts of the rich.
Chapter 61
Upon learning that the military units and refugees had been transported, Melekhov ordered the army to retreat. Crossing with his Cossacks to the other side, Grigory gave the order to build fortifications and take up positions.
Chapter 62
After the crossing, Aksinya settled in Veshenskaya with her aunt. On behalf of Grigory, Prokhor Zykov found the woman and brought her to Melekhov. “They lived for two days as if in a dream, confusing days and nights, forgetting about their surroundings.”
Chapter 63
Grigory visits his relatives in Tatarsky. Panteley told his son that Natalya had contracted typhus, so he and Ilyinichnaya did not move with other farmers. The elder Melekhov was angry with his son: Grigory, instead of taking care of the children and his wife, was again with Aksinya.
Chapter 64
Kudinov informs Melekhov that the White Guards have sent ammunition and are already going to help the rebels.
Chapter 65
Koshevoy, in the ranks of the 33rd Kuban division, followed the retreating Cossacks of Melekhov. Once in Tatarsky, Mishka did not find anyone at home. Koshevoy goes to the Korshunovs, but meets only his grandfather Grishaka there. The old man began to scold Mishka for going over to the communists. Angry, Mishka shot the old man and burned him along with the hut.
Having met Ilyinichna, Koshevoy said that he would marry Dunyashka, and if the girl was given for someone else, he would take revenge. Mishka burned a few more huts and again went to the front.
Book Four
Part seven
Chapter 1
After the Upper Don uprising, the Reds liberated the Southern Front, which allowed the command of the Don Army to regroup their forces and create a "powerful shock group from regiments" near Kamenskaya and Ust-Belokalitvenskaya villages.
The Cossacks from the Tatar Hundred lived quietly. Only Stepan was worried - “whether he learned from the farm Cossacks or his heart told him that Aksinya was meeting Grigory in Veshenskaya”. At the request of Astakhov, Aksinya arrived at a hundred, but they were embarrassed together, so the woman left a day later.
Chapter 2
At night, near the farm of Maly Gromchonok, the Reds crossed the Don and attacked the heavily drunk Cossacks. The pressure of the Bolsheviks was restrained only by the fact that they did not know the area, and it was dark. Melekhov, seeing that the Cossacks were fleeing, with a handful of the remaining began to return people, he managed to restore the front and defeat the Reds.
Chapter 3
The captured Reds were first kept in the stable, and then they were taken under escort to the village for reprisal. Only one Bolshevik managed to escape - the man pretended to be crazy, and the Cossacks left him with the old woman. The woman noticed the soldier's deception and let her go to her own in the morning.
Chapter 4
Gradually, Natalya recovered from typhus. The Red Army soldiers, pursued by the Cossacks, quickly left the farm. Soon the rebels began to return to Tatarsky, and Pantelei Prokofievich also arrived.
Chapter 5
On June 10, the cavalry of the Don Army “broke through the front near the village of Ust-Belokalitvenskaya, moved towards the village of Kazanskaya”. At the Don, the Cossacks met with the 9th Don Regiment and at first were delighted with the allies. However, having fallen under the command of white officers, who sent them at their own discretion, the rebels were disappointed: “And the horseradish is not sweeter!” .
Chapter 6
Grigory arrives at the dilapidated, plundered Yagodnoye. From the cook Lukerya, hiding on the estate, Melekhov learns about the death of the groom Sashka and buries the old man near the grave of his daughter.
Chapter 7
General Secretaries and white officers arrived in Veshenskaya. They were greeted with a magnificent banquet. Having drunk, the whites began to reproach the Cossacks for disobedience, Kudinov swore to serve the white army forever. Grigory, listening to this, understood that soon the whites would begin to "step on the throat" of the Cossacks, "[the Cossacks] have lost the habit of saluting and stretching before their nobility."
Leaving the banquet, Melekhov went to Aksinya, who was visiting Stepan. Astakhov invited Grigory to sit down, and the three of them silently drank moonshine: “there was dead silence in the upper room.”
Chapter 8
Prokhor comes to the Astakhovs for Grigory - Secrets urgently wants to see the Cossack. However, Melekhov first visits his relatives.
Grigory strictly forbade Dunyashka to communicate with the murderer of Pyotr Koshev. Melekhov, having said goodbye to his wife and children, "tormented by vague forebodings, oppressive anxiety and longing," left the farm.
Chapters 9-10
Melekhov is summoned to General Fitzhelaur. On the way to the headquarters, Grigory, in a conversation with Kopylov, says that the white officers are too arrogant, which causes hostility among the Cossacks. Kopylov, on the other hand, believes that the attitude of the whites towards the rebels is fair, while Grigory's views are very similar to those of the Bolsheviks. “Half-jokingly, half-seriously,” Melekhov replies that when he moves to the Reds, he will be more appreciated there.
Fitzhelaur informed the Cossacks that their army was joining the Don army. The general tried to impose his tactics on Melekhov, the men quarreled. Grigory, reserving the right to obey only Kudinov, left.
Chapter 11
Contrary to Fitzhelaur's orders, Melekhov refused to lead men against the Red Army men holding Ust-Medveditskaya. Gregory did not like the policy of the Whites, and the war itself with the Reds, in his opinion, had lost its meaning. However, he was not going to go over to the side of the Bolsheviks.
Chapter 12
Korshunov arrives in Tatarsky, serving in a punitive detachment. For cruelty and self-execution of Red Army soldiers and deserters, Mitka was appointed an officer. Seeing that his home had burned down, Korshunov drove to the matchmaker, but after a short stay, he went to the farm. “Mitka and his companions had not yet managed to return to the Melekhovs, and already a rumor spread around the farm: “Korshunov and the Kalmyks have arrived, the whole Koshevoy family was slaughtered!” ". Upon learning of what had happened, Pantelei no longer let Mitka in.
The command of the "whites" arrived in Tatarsky. Panteley was instructed to bring bread and salt to the officers. Sidorin rewarded farmers who distinguished themselves in the fight against the Bolsheviks: Daria was awarded a medal for the murder of a Red Army soldier St. George ribbon and money for the death of her husband.
Chapter 13
Life in the Melekhov family has changed. Pantelei ceased to be a sovereign master, and relations between relatives deteriorated. Melekhov understood that the main reason for what was happening was the war. Daria categorically refused to share the money received for her husband.
Somehow, after another nightly adventures, Daria admitted to Natalya that she fell ill with a “bad disease” - syphilis. A woman, afraid of people's rumors, decides to commit suicide.
Chapter 14
Angry at life, Daria decided that she should not suffer alone and told Natalya how she called Gregory to Aksinya. Natalya was upset, but she understood Daria's motives.
Chapter 15
The Don army confidently pursues the Reds. Thanks to the competent command of Melekhov, many Reds were captured, machine guns and cartridge carts were repulsed.
Gregory is appointed commander of a hundred, despite the fact that the man wanted to transfer to serve in the rear. Soon Melekhov receives news that a misfortune has occurred at home, and he leaves on vacation.
Chapter 16
After a conversation with Daria, Natalya "lived, experiencing the feeling that happens in a dream, when a bad dream weighs heavily and there is no strength to wake up." The woman goes to Prokhor's wife to find out about the relationship between Grigory and Aksinya, but without reconnoitering anything, she goes to Astakhova herself. Aksinya confirmed that she had again "taken possession of Gregory" and now she would definitely try "not to let him out of her hands."
The next day, Natalya told Ilyinichna that Grigory was again with Aksinya, and that she was pregnant by her husband, but she wanted to get rid of this child. On the same day, Natalya went to the farm midwife and returned late in the evening, bleeding. The paramedic brought by Pantelei said that the woman could not be saved, as her female organs. By lunchtime, Natalia had died.
Chapter 17
Grigory was late for Natalya's funeral for three days. Ilyinichna told the man that Natalya went for an abortion after she found out about his relationship with Aksinya.
Chapter 18
Gregory took the death of his wife very hard. The man considered himself guilty of the death of Natalia, he realized that he loved their children, he loved her. Grigory began to spend more time with the children, especially with his son Mishatka.
It was time for Melekhov to return to the army.
Chapter 19
Heading to the front, Melekhov meets Semak, a corporal. Semak says that whites encourage looting, robbery and banditry among privates and officers. Many Cossacks, unable to stand it, desert.
Grigory stops to spend the night in a village near Balashova, where he meets a white officer and an Englishman. During the conversation, the drunken Englishman said that he respects the Reds, since they are the people, and "the people cannot be defeated."
Chapter 20
The Reds began to prepare for a large-scale offensive along the entire front. The Whites managed to break through the front and take Tambov. The Reds began to move towards Khopr and the Don, gradually wasting the power of the offensive breakthrough.
Chapter 21
“A week and a half after Gregory left for the front, Daria drowned herself in the Don”. Ilyinichna learns that Aksinya began to invite Mishatka to visit her, treating him and asking about Grigory. Melekhova got angry and forbade the boy to go to Astakhova. And then, having met Aksinya, she said that she would never become Grigory's wife.
At the end of August, Panteley with all the able-bodied men of the farm was mobilized. A few days later, Melekhov returned, having voluntarily fled from the front. A punitive detachment arrived for the man, the Kalmyks arrested the old man and sent him to Karginskaya for trial.
Chapter 22
Since Pantelei was the father of Grigory, he was punished only by deprivation of the rank of officer. The offensive of the Reds was expected, so the Melekhovs left Tatarsky.
Chapter 23
On September 18, the last Cossack hundred left Veshenskaya under fire from the Reds. The news began to come to the Cossacks that the Bolsheviks did not loot and did not burn kurens, but generously paid for the provisions taken from the locals.
Chapter 24
The Melekhovs lived for two and a half weeks in the Latyshev farm. Upon learning that "the Reds retreated from the Don", the family returned home.
Pantelei received a release from service through an acquaintance of a paramedic in the village and set about restoring the economy. The murdered Anikushka and Khristonya are brought to the farm, and soon Gregory, who fell ill with typhus.
Chapter 25
“A month later, Gregory recovered. For the first time he got out of bed on the twentieth of November. Melekhov suddenly became interested in the household, he was busy with the children more and more, but it was difficult for a man to talk with them about the war, about his mother.
Gregory was summoned "to the medical commission for re-examination" and the man began to prepare with the Cossacks to retreat. Before leaving, Melekhov went to Aksinya and invited her to leave with him. Astakhova agreed.
Chapter 26
"All the northern villages of the Don were moving south". At each stop, Gregory tried to find out where his relatives were now, who joined the retreat later. On the way, Aksinya fell ill with typhus, and Grigory had to leave the weakened woman in care in one of the villages.
Chapter 27
“The days dragged on gray and bleak. Leaving Aksinya, Grigory immediately lost interest in his surroundings.
“The war was coming to an end. The denouement came swiftly and inevitably. The Donets were broken." Grigory arrives at the Belaya Glina farm, where he learns that Pantelei had died of typhus the day before. After burying his father, Melekhov falls ill with relapsing fever and Prokhor takes the man to the Kuban.
Chapters 28-29
On the way, Grigory and Prokhor met Melekhov's Cossack friends, who helped take the patient to a doctor in Yekaterinodar. Soon Gregory began to recover.
In Novorossiysk, people were evacuated to Turkey on ships. The families of landowners, White Guard generals, and rich people were the first to leave. Desperate to get on the ship, people committed suicide right on the pier. Gregory understands that he will not be able to leave and calmly awaits the Bolshevik invasion.
In front of Melekhov, Novorossiysk was occupied by the Reds.
Part eight
Chapter 1
After recovering, Aksinya returned to Tatarsky. In the farm there were various rumors about the fate of Grigory, gradually "alarm for the life of Grigory, as it were, brought together and related" Astakhova and Ilyinichna. The Melekhovs began to communicate with Aksinya, inviting her to visit. News comes that Stepan has left for the Crimea. Soon Prokhor arrived at the farm, and he said that Melekhov had joined the Red Army.
Chapter 2
Koshevoy returns to Tatarsky. Ilyinichna received Mishka coldly, but Dunyashka stood up for her beloved. Koshevoy began to help the women little by little with the housework, and in Ilyinichna's heart a "wrenching maternal pity" woke up for him.
Chapter 3
Ilyinichna did not agree to the wedding of Dunyasha and Mishka for a long time, but when the girl threatened that she would leave with her beloved, the woman had to give in. They played a modest, quiet wedding. Koshevoy turned out to be a skilled host. It was hard for Ilyinichna to accept a stranger, she felt unnecessary, living only in anticipation of the arrival of Gregory. Soon the woman became very ill and, without seeing her son, died. Astakhova took Grigory's children to her.
Chapter 4
Koshevoy was quickly tired of housework, the man increasingly thought that he had settled on the farm too early. Mishka was not happy that the Whites, who had gone over to the side of the Reds, were not responsible for the crimes committed against the Bolsheviks - according to Koshevoy, they still need to be dealt with in the Cheka.
Mishka is appointed chairman of the local revolutionary committee.
Chapter 5
Among the villagers there is dissatisfaction with the Soviet government - people lived very poorly. Dunyashka tried to talk to her husband about the new government, but Koshevoy accused the woman of counter-revolutionary talk. When Dunyashka asked what would happen to Grigory for serving with the Whites, Mishka replied that he could be shot.
Chapter 6
Grigory returned to Tatarsky. Mishka greeted Melekhov coldly, but the Koshevoys gathered a table and invited Prokhor and Aksinya to celebrate the return of the Cossack.
After the guests left, Mishka told Grigory that he considered Melekhov an enemy, since he could again go over to the side of the Whites. Koshevoy decided to move into his hut and demanded that Grigory urgently register with the Revolutionary Committee.
Chapter 7
Prokhor tells Grigory that old Listnitsky died of typhus, and Eugene, having learned about his wife's betrayal, shot himself. In addition, the Cossack reports an uprising that has broken out nearby and worries about Melekhov - he can be accused of being the instigator. After hesitating, Gregory decides to go through all the stages of registration in the Revolutionary Committee.
Chapters 8-9
“After returning from Veshenskaya, Grigory went to the farm revolutionary committee, showed Koshevoy his military documents marked by the military registration and enlistment office and left without saying goodbye. He moved to Aksinya, took his children and some of his property with him. Melekhov was tormented by uncertainty, he could not live in peace with his family. One night, Dunyashka ran up to them with a warning about the impending arrest. Gregory quickly got up and left.
Chapter 10
In response to the actions of the Soviet authorities, unrest began among the Cossacks, and Cossack gangs appeared, dissatisfied with the surplus appraisal. The leader of the uprising near Veshenskaya was former friend Melekhov Yakov Fomin.
Chapter 11
Melekhov lived for a couple of months with a Cossack friend and relative of Aksinya, and after that he was going to Yagodnoye. On the way, the man was met by Fomin's people, and he joined Yakov's gang.
Chapter 12
Fomin tried to attract the Cossacks, but tired of the war, hungry people did not agree to support his gang. Seeing the detachment of people, Fomin began to threaten the farmers.
Chapter 13
Melekhov did not like that Fomin's people were looting. Yakov's gang comes under fire from the Reds, after which Melekhov is completely convinced of Fomin's failure as a leader.
Chapter 14
Settled on a wooded island in the middle of the Don, Fomin's people sit back, waiting for action to begin. A close associate of Yakov Kaparin offers Melekhov to kill Fomin and the rest of the gang, and then surrender to the Reds. Grigory did not agree, but just in case he disarmed Kaparin. At night, the Fomins, having guessed everything, kill Kaparin in his sleep.
Chapters 15-16
At the end of April, the Fomins crossed the Don. They decide to link up with Maslak's famous gang, and more and more Cossacks join them. Despite the fact that Fomin argued that his people continue to fight for the happiness of the working people, in fact they were only engaged in robberies. Gregory decides to leave the gang and secretly leaves it one night.
Chapter 17
Grigory arrives at his native farm and, quietly making his way to Aksinya, offers to go with him to the Kuban. The woman agreed, the children were temporarily left to Dunyashka. On the way, near Chir, they came across an outpost. Melekhov ordered the woman to go back. Shots were heard, Aksinya was mortally wounded. The man took her to the forest, where the woman, without regaining consciousness, died in his arms.
Chapter 18
“Like a steppe scorched by fires, Gregory’s life became black. He lost everything that was dear to his heart. After wandering aimlessly across the steppe for several days, Melekhov joined the deserters. Grigory constantly dreamed of children, Aksinya, relatives.
In early spring, the man, unable to stand it, returns to the farm, where he learns that his daughter has died of scarlet fever. Grigory "stood at the gates of his native house, holding his son in his arms ... It was all that remained in his life, which still made him related to the earth and to all this huge world shining under the cold sun" .
Conclusion
In The Quiet Don, Sholokhov portrays to the reader a comprehensive picture of the world, covering the fate of people from various strata of the population. In the work, the author reveals the problem of the formation of a personality in a critical historical period, touches on the issues of love and betrayal, family happiness, friendship, relations between fathers and children, highlights the topic of war, morality and duty.
The brilliant novel was translated into many languages, and in 1965 Sholokhov was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for The Quiet Flows the Don.
A brief retelling of The Quiet Flows the Don will be of interest to schoolchildren and students, as well as to all connoisseurs of Russian literature who want to quickly recall the main storylines of the work.
Quiet Don test
After reading the summary of the novel, you can test your knowledge by taking this quiz.
Retelling rating
Average rating: 4.6. Total ratings received: 8188.
For 15 years. The actions of the novel cover the period from 1912 to 1922, when the events of the First World War, the Revolution of 1917 and the Patriotic War took place, as well as the impact of these events on the Don Cossacks. The image of the main character, Grigory Melekhov, is collective and reflects the power of the Russian, freedom-loving spirit. This work entered the history of Russian literature as a monumental epic in the genre of socialist realism.
In contact with
Many have read and know the plot of the novel "The Quiet Flows the Don" by Sholokhov. But some, for example, to write an article or presentation, do not want to read the novel completely chapter by chapter, but it is enough for them to write brief retelling chapters or parts of a book. Among schoolchildren, the "Quiet Flows the Don" in abbreviation is very popular, where they can quickly get acquainted with information by chapter. But still, it is better to read Sholokhov in full and in the original.
Quiet Don Sholokhov
Main characters
Minor characters
Quiet Don. Brief summary in parts
Book 1
- Part 1.
The author introduces the reader to the family of the Don Cossacks Melekhovs. The family consists of an elderly father Pantelei Prokofievich, his wife Ilyinichna, sons Peter and Grigory and beloved youngest daughter Dunyasha. Gregory, the protagonist of the novel, is 6 years younger than his brother Peter, handsome and has a stormy stubborn disposition. The Melekhov family originated from a mixture of Turkish and Cossack blood, for which the family received the nickname Turks in their native Tatar farm.
Grigory falls passionately in love with his married neighbor Aksinya Astakhova. A girl with a difficult fate, lives with an unloved husband who often beats her. At the age of 15, Aksinya was raped by his own father, for which his mother and brother beat him to death. Living with a wife that he got not a girl, her husband Stepan often takes revenge by cheating on her with different women.
One day, going fishing with Dunyasha and Malashka, Grigory and Aksinya get caught in heavy rain with a thunderstorm and decide to warm themselves in a haystack. Melekhov passionately presses the woman to him.
After this incident, Aksinya sees Grigory as rarely as possible. But, not knowing love and understanding in marriage, she constantly thinks about the black-eyed Cossack. When Stepan and Petro go to the Cossack camp for service, the woman secretly meets her lover at night.
Soon, rumors about her infidelity begin to creep around the farm. Aksinya defiantly tells Stepan that she has sinned, and he beats her on the head in the street. The Melekhov brothers stand up for the woman. Astakhov only after the betrayal realizes how painfully he loves his wife and begins to harbor a grudge against Grigory.
Pantelei Prokofievich is very angry with his son. He decides to quickly marry Grigory to Natalya Korshunova, a girl from a wealthy family. Natalya, who has long been in love with him, is glad of this marriage, while Grigory is sad and notices at the wedding how much worse his bride is than Aksinya.
- Part 2
In the farm, the Mokhov family is considered the most prosperous. Father Sergei Platonovich has a store and distributes bills to many Cossacks. His children from his first marriage, Vladimir and Liza, raised by their stepmother, grew up strangers to each other and unkind.
Mitka Korshunov, once calling Liza for fishing, raped the girl, which the whole farm soon found out about, and the father had to send his daughter to the capital for “courses”.
Everyone in the Melekhovs' house fell in love with Natalya, and only Grigory was cold with her, constantly thinking about Aksinya. After direct words that she is a stranger to him, Natalya returns to her parents' house. Grigory wants to flee with his beloved to the Kuban, but the upcoming service does not allow him to do this.
Main character goes to Mokhov, where he meets the centurion Yevgeny Lisnitsky, who offers him and Aksinya a job on his Yagodnoye estate. Aksinya runs away from her husband with Grigory, without saying that she is expecting a child from Melekhov.
Natalya lives in the hope that her husband will return to her, cries and rushes about. Gregory writes her an unambiguous answer so that she can live on her own. Melekhov senior takes pity on her and tries to support her, but Natalya tries to commit suicide by cutting her throat with a scythe.
Lisnitsky arrives home in Yagodnoye after being wounded and begins to look at Aksinya. She confesses to Melekhov that she is expecting a child from him. One day, after haymaking, a woman gives birth right on the way home to a girl, Tanya.
Soon Gregory is going to the service. His father comes to see him off, who does not even look at Aksinya and his granddaughter.
- Part 3
Natalia survived and went on the mend. Natalya's relatives moved away from her, and she decides to move to live with Grigory's family. She is still waiting for him to return to her. In the letters, Melekhov replies that he cannot promise such a thing and that he has a child from Aksinya.
Among the soldiers it was announced that Germany had started the war and Gregory's regiment was sent to the Russian-Austrian border. In one of the battles near the Verba station, he killed several Austrians, which haunted him. Melekhov was tormented by feelings of guilt and a sense of the senselessness of the war.
Stepan Astakhov curried himself to the head of the post, and Mitka Koshevoy and other young Cossacks were mobilized. Lisnitsky also went to war, wanting to accomplish a feat. He soon gets wounded in the shoulder and returns to Yagodnoe. At this time, Aksinya's daughter dies of scarlet fever, and she finds solace in the arms of the centurion.
During the battle near the city of Kamenka-Strumilovo, Grigory kills a Hungarian officer, but he himself receives a severe wound in the head. The Melekhov family receives a letter about Grishka's death. But on the 20th day after the memorial service, Petro writes that Gregory was awarded the St. George Cross and given the title.
Grigory's eye was severely wounded and he was sent to a Moscow hospital for treatment. There he meets Andrei Garanzha, who inspires him with the ideas of the Bolsheviks, and Melekhov agrees with the new ideology.
Returning to Yagodnoye, Grigory finds out about Aksinya's betrayal, beats her and Lisnitsky with a whip and goes to his parents' house to his wife.
Book 2
- Part 4.
1916 Lisnitsky learns that the Cossack Ilya Bunchuk among the officers promotes the ideas of the Bolsheviks. He wants to arrest him, but Bunchuk manages to desert. They find the remains of leaflets with calls to the proletarians.
Grigory at home yearns for Aksinya, and then returns to the front, where he fights desperately and, as a result, is seriously wounded.
It is difficult for Panteley Prokofievich to cope with the household without his sons. Natalya gives birth to a boy and a girl, and Daria, without a husband, walks with the men left on the farm.
Having learned that the autocracy has collapsed, the Cossacks gather at Mokhov's house to decide what will happen to them next. Everyone understands that the new government will take away all the acquired wealth from the wealthy Sergei Platonovich in order to equalize with the rest.
Kornilov, a white general, becomes commander-in-chief of the Southwestern Front. Lisnitsky begins to hold political conversations among the Cossacks so that they support the counter-revolution. Soldiers do not like confusion and dual power. Lisnitsky with his hundred advance to Petrograd. Kornilov is soon arrested, and General Alekseev is appointed in his place.
After the October Revolution, Kornilov learns that his ally Kaledin is uniting the Don army. He manages to escape from prison. Despite Lisnitsky's propaganda, many of his hundreds of Cossacks go over to the side of the Reds or desert.
- Part 5
During the war, many Cossacks of the Tatarsky farm died, but Pyotr Melekhov returned home and said that Grigory had become the commander of a hundred among the Bolsheviks. During the service with the Reds, the Cossack Izvarin inspires Melekhov that the Cossacks should have autonomy and their own power.
Kaledin with the rest of the whites, who fled from the revolution, the soldiers stop in Novocherkassk. Meanwhile, Bunchuk goes to captured Rostov, where, together with Anna Pogudko and a detachment of workers, he tries to drive the whites out of the city. Fighting in Rostov takes place right on the street all week. After that, Ilya falls ill with typhus, and Anna, who has fallen in love with him, does not leave the man.
The Bolsheviks in the village of Kamenskaya announced the Military Revolutionary Committee, in which Podtelkov became chairman, and Krivoshilov became secretary. The delegation of this committee goes to Kaledin in Novocherkassk with a demand to surrender, but the general refuses.
Near the village of Glubokaya, the red detachment of Gregory defeats the white soldiers. As a result, the Bolsheviks brutally kill the captured White Guards, which greatly affects Melekhov.
Kaledin, having learned that the White Guard retreated to the Kuban and the Reds fortified in Taganrog, resigns and commits suicide. Nazarov takes over the control of the white army in the south. He starts a new mobilization of the Cossacks, but because of the propaganda of the Bolsheviks, many refuse and take the side of the Whites.
On the Setrakov farm, the Red soldiers got drunk and began to rage. To protect their homes from pogroms, the Cossacks hastily assemble an independent detachment led by Miron Korshunov.
The more the Reds approached the farms, the more hatred they aroused among the Cossacks. As a result, Podtelkov and his soldiers are shot, and Grigory recalls how this red commander shot white prisoners in the same way.
Book 3
- Part 6
In 1918, the Don Cossacks were divided: the northern farms were for the Reds, and the lower reaches wanted independent power and scolded the Bolsheviks for dividing the people. The Germans soon came to the aid of the Reds, who behaved like masters, robbing the Cossack farms.
Stepan Astakhov, who was considered dead, returned to the farm. He was captured by the Germans and came to Aksinya to ask to get together again. She receives a payment from the Lisnitskys and begins to live with her husband.
Grigory fights for the Don, where the entire hundred begins to rob and loot, which Melekhov does not like very much. His father and Daria came to see him and found out that Grishka had been demoted to a platoon leader. After the battles, Gregory goes home.
The Red Army pushes back the Cossack army and soon the Bolsheviks establish their power in Tatarsky. They take away weapons and arrest everyone who fought for the whites. Melekhov senior falls ill with typhus.
On the Don began mass uprisings of the Cossacks against the power of the Soviets. The Melekhov brothers joined the rebels. In the battle, Koshevoy shot Peter and Grigory began to desperately avenge his brother in red. He skillfully won in all battles.
Arriving in Veshenskaya, Grigory heard that the rebels were behaving worse than the Reds. They began to imprison even women and children, relatives of Bolshevik soldiers. Melekhov released everyone from prison.
The Cossacks began to run away from the service, because the sowing began. Returning home, Gregory took up the household. He met Aksinya and they again spent several nights together. After staying at home for only 5 days, Melekhov goes to the Serbor regiment to find out from his colleagues who killed his brother.
Captured communists are brought to the Tatar farm. Daria, wanting to avenge her husband, shoots from a rifle at commander Ivan Alekseevich.
In May, a detachment of Gregory was sent to break through the Bolshevik front. He writes a letter to Aksinya so that she goes to him. Rumor has it that the Reds burned and robbed the huts of the rich. Many flee to the other side of the Don.
Aksinya crosses in Veshenskaya to her aunt, and then goes to Grigory. The lovers spent several days with each other, as if in a dream.
Arriving to his parents, Melekhov learns that his family cannot leave, because Natalya is ill with typhus. He returns to his unit because the White Guards have sent ammunition to support the rebels.
Mishka Koshevoy, who has taken the side of the Reds, burns the huts of his native farm, and when he meets Ilyinichna, he threatens that if his mother does not give Dunyashka for him, he will take revenge.
Book 4
- Part 7
The struggle of the rebels was crowned with success, and they managed to push the Reds and liberate the farms. In July, white officers joined the cavalry of the Don army and took command. The Cossacks quickly realized that "radish horseradish is not sweeter."
The Cossacks began to return to their homes. Melekhov learned that Natalya was on the mend.
White officers arranged a banquet at which they began to reproach the Cossacks for disobedience. Melekhov thought that very soon these officers would begin to put pressure on the throats of free farmers who had lost the habit of power.
On the way back, he stops by Aksinya and Stepan, and they drink moonshine in silence.
Grigory soon said goodbye to his family and went to General Fitzhelaur, where he complains about the bad attitude of white officers towards the Cossacks. Melekhov ceases to see the point in the war with the Reds, because the white government is no better.
On the farm, Daria is given money for the murder of a red officer. Relations in the Melekhov family are not going well. Peter's wife falls ill with syphilis. Not wanting to suffer alone, she tells the pregnant Natalya that Grigory was with Aksinya again. A woman dies from bleeding after an abortion. And then Daria drowns herself in the river.
Melekhov, having learned about the misfortune, returned home and strongly blamed himself for the death of his wife. But he had to return to the front, where he learned that the whites began to encourage robbery and theft, and that soldiers were fleeing the army.
The Reds launched an offensive to the south, and the Whites managed to liberate Tambov. Melekhov fell ill with typhus and returned home. After his recovery, he took care of the house and children.
All the inhabitants of the northern farms began to move south after the retreat of the white army. Aksinya runs away from her husband with Grigory, but on the way she falls ill with typhus and the man leaves her in one of the villages.
He travels to the White Clay farm, where he learns that his father died of typhus. After the funeral, Grigory again falls ill with the same ailment and is taken to the Kuban to see a doctor.
Having recovered, Melekhov sees how quickly the city of Novocherkassk was captured by the Reds.
- Part 8
Aksinya and Ilyinichna returned to their native farm. Anxiety for Gregory reconciled the women. Aksinya often spends time with the children of Melekhov. Mishka Koshevoy comes to Dunyashka and they play a modest wedding.
Grigory's mother dies from unrest, without waiting for her son. Mishka restores the Melekhovs' economy and criticizes the whites who have joined the reds. He believes that Gregory can be shot for serving with the Whites.
Mishka told Melekhov, who had arrived, to report to the Revolutionary Committee urgently. On the Don, riots periodically arose, and Gregory could put up the instigators. Having received documents from the revolutionary committee, and having begun to live with Aksinya's children, at night Grigory finds out about his imminent arrest and runs away.
Melekhov falls into the gang of Yakov Fomin, who is fighting the Reds. In fact, the Cossacks in this resistance group only rob and loot, which Grigory does not like.
After several months, Grishka returns to his native farm. He invites Aksinya to flee to the Kuban, leaving the children to Dunyashka. When the woman agrees, then on the way they meet the outpost of the Reds. Aksinya dies from a shot in the arms of Grigory.
Melekhov wanders the fields in despair, then returns to the gang when his daughter dies of scarlet fever. In the spring, returning to his native farm, Grigory takes his son in his arms and realizes that this is all that he has left in life.
After reading the summary of “Quiet Flows the Don”, you will definitely want to familiarize yourself with the entire novel.
His grandfather, in his youth, married a nondescript woman whom he brought with him from a campaign. Because of this, grandfather Gregory had a lifelong conflict with his father, because his father was against his marriage to a foreigner.
Having chosen a foreigner as his wife, he had to become a hermit and settle in the outskirts, they soon had a child, whom they named Panteley. He was very much like his mother, just as dark and black-eyed. When the boy grew up, he began to help his father with the housework, and soon he himself married a Cossack woman. In a happy marriage, children began to appear. Panteley had 4 children: two sons, Petro and Grigory, and 2 daughters, Dunyashka and Daria.
In the early morning, Pantelei invites his youngest son to go fishing, during which he asks to forget about Aksinya, who was already the wife of their neighbor Stepan. But Grigory does not respond to his father's request and continues to run after Aksinya. This girl suffered a lot in her life, as a child she was brutally raped by her father, and after marriage, her husband began to beat her with the same cruelty. Therefore, when she felt the sympathy of Gregory, he fell in love with him unconsciously. Soon everyone in the district learned about their romance. Summary “Quiet Don” will not be able to fully embrace all the passions described in the novel. Stepan, having learned about it even more, begins to beat Aksinya, and Grigory is quickly married to Natalya. But still, they can not cope with their feelings and forget about each other. Gregory confesses to his wife that he was never able to love her, to which she decides to commit suicide. This does not worry him much, since Aksinya confesses to him that they will soon have a child.
And just at this time, Gregory was called to the war, which lasted 4 years. The description of the war begins, the summary of "Quiet Flows the Don" will not give you a complete account of all the spectacular battles in which Gregory took part. In the second battle, he is wounded in the head, and the news of his death will reach his native village. After some time, this information will be refuted, and Natalya will go to Aksinya to ask her to leave her husband alone. At the same time, Grigory's daughter dies, and Aksinya begins to accept courtship from Listintsky. After another injury, Gregory is sent home, rumors about the infidelity of his beloved reach him instantly, and he decides to return to his wife.
The protagonist is disappointed in the war and in the Motherland. They want to arrest Gregory because he fought for the whites, in order to save his life, he has to flee from his native land. He returns home only after the news of the uprising of the Cossacks. His brother serves for the Reds, but he is fraudulently captured and killed. The death of his brother and the war have a bad effect on the state of Gregory, he begins to abuse alcohol.
Deciding to make a breakthrough to the Danube, Melekhov takes Aksinya with him and leaves with her. But soon he receives news from home that his wife Natalya, having an abortion, dies tragically. And without seeing her beloved husband, she dies.
A real masterpiece fiction- This is the work of "Quiet Don". The very brief content of this article does not allow describing all the interesting plots of the novel.
In the end, the main character loses almost everything, his father dies of illness, his beloved Aksinya dies in the field from a bullet wound. The unfortunate Gregory realizes that he has nothing left in his life except children, and he returns to them.
The life of an ordinary Cossack was described in his novel by Sholokhov "Quiet Don". The summary of this work leads almost all readers to read it in its entirety.
- Very short (shortest)
- Summary by chapter
Very short (shortest)
The novel "Quiet Don" tells about the difficult fate of the family of the Don Cossacks Melekhovs. The main character is the youngest son Gregory. The book tells about his great love for a married woman, an unsuccessful marriage, how he fought in the First World War, how he became a widow, how he lost loved ones, how he perceived October revolution and the Civil War. And in the end, he was left a widower with a son in his arms.
This is a novel about the Don Cossacks in general. About how, after the revolution, all their foundations and habitual way of life were destroyed, and the Cossacks themselves began to be persecuted, sent into exile and were shot.
Read the summary of Quiet Don Sholokhov
On the Tatar farm, on the Don, lived the family of Pantelei Melekhov, who was popularly called "Turk", since his mother was a captive Turkish woman. Panteley and his wife Vasilisa Ilyinichna had three children: Peter, Grigory and Dunya. The eldest son Peter was already married to Daria, but they all lived together.
The younger Grishka fell in love with a married neighbor, Aksinya, who reciprocated his feelings. Grigory's family opposed this connection and decided to marry him to Natalya Korshunova. Gregory agreed. And Aksinya stayed with her husband Stepan, who severely beat her and cheated on her. Grigory and Natalya got married, but life did not go. They broke up. Natalya returned to her parents' house, and Grishka resumed his affair with Aksinya. Upon learning that she was expecting a child from him, he persuaded her to leave her husband. They leave the farm and are employed in the service of the nearest estate. The couple has a daughter. Natalya Korshunova tried to commit suicide by throwing her neck on a sickle, but survived. After that, the family began to treat her badly, and she went to live with the Melekhovs.
Meanwhile, it's time for Gregory to serve in the military. His father comes to see him off. Pantelei Melekhov. He does not notice Aksinya, but recognizes his granddaughter. Gregory goes to the front. His brother Peter and Aksinya's husband Stepan are also fighting. At the front, the paths of all three intersect. Stepan did not forget the insult.
Grishka is seriously injured, and his family is informed that he has died. Then Peter, in his letter, reassures his relatives, writes that Gregory did not die, was promoted and received an award.
After another wound, Grishka ends up in a Moscow hospital. His little daughter falls ill and dies. Experiencing severe grief, Aksinya accepts the courtship of the son of the owner of the estate, Yevgeny Lisnitsky. Grigory, returning to the estate, learns about the betrayal of his beloved, beats Lisnitsky with a whip. He returns to the parental home and converges with his wife Natalia.
Grigory cannot forget Aksinya and at the front is distinguished by recklessness and courage. He becomes a full Knight of St. George. Natalya gave birth to twins to Gregory: a boy and a girl. Peter's wife Daria walks with other men, including Aksinya's husband Stepan. Peter learns about his wife's infidelities and wants to take revenge. But Stepan died, and when he sees his wife, Peter softens.
In the country big changes. The king abdicated. The Cossacks are beginning to be pulled from side to side. Red to you, white to you.
Many Cossacks did not return home from the war, but Peter Melekhov was lucky. At home, he reports that Grigory is now a Bolshevik and has led a detachment of Red Army soldiers. However, after the cruel massacre of the captured White Guards, Grigory begins to doubt the Bolsheviks. He is wounded and goes home.
Don was liberated from the Bolsheviks. The Cossacks gathered and chose the ataman - General Krasnov. Meanwhile, the Germans came to the Don and behaved like masters.
Mishka Koshevoy meets Stepan, Aksinya's husband, who turns out not to have died, but was taken prisoner by the Germans. Stepan returns to the farm and persuades Aksinya to return to him. The Cossacks begin to rob and loot, which Grigory does not like, and he arbitrarily leaves the service and leaves for home. Behind him, unable to withstand quarrels and hostility, Peter leaves the location.
Now the Reds have come to the Don, including the Tatarsky farm. Their power has been established. Mishka Koshevoy became the deputies of the red ataman. Grigory fled from the farm, as he could have been shot as a white officer. Cossacks are arrested and shot, searches are carried out in their homes. The Cossacks have risen. Koshevoy is hiding. Cossacks create military detachments. One of them is headed by Peter. Peter's squad is ambushed. The koshevoi shot Peter, and the rest were hacked to pieces. Gregory cruelly avenged his brother.
The Cossacks are tired of the war and return home to sow bread. Grishka again converges with Aksinya and returns to the front. Natalya, having learned about her husband's infidelity, makes an underground abortion and dies. Gregory blames himself very much for the death of his wife and pays more attention to children. Daria, Peter's widow fell ill with syphilis and drowned herself in the river. Pantelei Melekhov dies of typhus. Dunyasha Melekhova marries Mishka Koshevoy, who shot her brother Peter. Grigory's mother dies, and Aksinya takes his children to her.
Grigory does not approve of his sister's marriage, and Koshevoy makes a career under the Soviet regime and threatens Grigory with execution. Grishka and Aksinya decide to leave, leaving the children to Dunyasha. On the way, Aksinya was shot dead. Gregory's daughter died of scarlet fever. The book ends with Grigory and his son standing at the threshold of their home.
Summary of Sholokhov's novel Quiet Don in chapters, parts, books, volumes
The epic novel tells about the most important historical milestones in the life of the people through the fate of one of its most distinctive groups - the Don Cossacks. The story of several generations within the same Melekhov family, who experienced all the hardships of such wars as the First World War and the Civil War and the 1917 revolution. The central character is Grigory Melekhov. The Cossack is the personification of the feelings of confusion and disappointment experienced by the people, reflection and a desperate desire for the most unpretentious human happiness.
Quiet Don Book 1
Part 1
Chapter 1
Cossack Prokofy Melekhov returns to his native farm after participating in one of the Turkish companies. He brings a Turkish wife to Tatarsky. A son Pantelei is born in the family, who continued his father's family, who received the nickname "Turks" among his fellow villagers. Growing up, Pantelei married a neighbor's girl Vasilisa and strengthened his household. In the third generation of the Melekhovs, Petro was born, a bright brown-eyed Cossack, six years later Grigory, very similar to his father, and Dunyashka, the most beloved, big-eyed and long-armed.
Chapter 2
Rumors circulate around the farm about Grigory Melekhov's connection with a neighbor's married woman Aksinya Astakhova. Panteley, on the way back from fishing, tries to reason with his son, who has come of age, and demands that he immediately "cover all the games." In order to sell the carp, Grigory and his friend Mitka Korshunov go to the house of the merchant Mokhov. Here Mitka sees Mokhov's daughter, Elizaveta.
Chapter 3-4
Father's threats about Aksinya do not stop Grigory. He continues to see Aksinya. Aksinya's husband, Stepan and Petro Melekhov are leaving for regular May gatherings in the camps of the Cossacks.
Chapter 5-6
Stepan and Petro are sent along with other Cossacks to the location of the camp in the area of the village of Setrakov. Stopping for the night at the mound, they listen to the story of how the Cossack Khristonya and his father once dug up a similar mound in search of a treasure.
Chapter 7
Sixteen-year-old Aksinya was raped by her own father. For such a terrible act, the mother and brothers of the girl beat her father to death. At seventeen, Aksinya becomes the wife of Stepan Astakhov, and the entire household falls on the shoulders of the girl. Unable to come to terms with the honor of his wife, lost before marriage, Stepan often and severely beats Aksinya, cheats on her with other farmers. The Astakhovs' firstborn dies before he has lived even twelve months. Grigory drew attention to the well-tailored neighbor. Seeing how ugly her husband treats her, he was filled with pity. Aksinya is unable to resist the desire to see Grigory, to communicate with him.
Chapter 8
Mitka Korshunov and the boastful centurion Listnitsky conclude a dispute over whose horse is better. Listnitsky has no doubts about his victory. Contrary to his confidence, the centurion lags behind the dashing Cossack Korshunov. Mitka emerges victorious.
Chapter 9-10
The Melekhov family went to the mowing meadows. Aksinya, who was left without a husband in a difficult time, goes with them. Aksinya and Grigory spent the night together. Very soon this became known to all the villagers. Pantelei Melekhov forbids Aksinya to appear in his family. The strictness of Panteley Prokofich had no effect either on his son or on Aksinya. The enamored Aksinya responds to Gregory's father with a refusal and a promise to continue her relationship with him. An enraged Pantelei beats his son and decides to immediately marry Grigory. “Zhenya! Marry the fool!"
Chapter 11-13
Stepan, who is at the training camp, is told about Aksinya's betrayal with Grigory. The deceived husband plans to take revenge on his wife and the neighbor who dared to disgrace him. Because of the current situation, Stepan tries to communicate as little as possible with Peter Melekhov, Grigory's brother. Meetings between Aksinya and Gregory become more and more frequent. They are not stopped by the unkind rumor of the farmers. Those, in turn, beginners increasingly shun lovers.
Chapter 14
The Cossacks are returning to the farm from the May gathering. Stepan Astakhov also returned. Arriving home, Stepan severely beats Aksinya. Unable to bear the beatings, Aksinya runs out into the yard. Stepan continues to beat his wife in front of other Cossacks. The Melekhov brothers stand up for Aksinya. They fight with Stepan. Kazakov is separated by Khrisanf Tokin (Christonya), who came to Peter for a fishing rod.
Chapter 15
Pantelei Prokofievich fulfills this promise. The Melekhovs are going to woo their youngest son to Natalya Korshunova. The girl has long liked Gregory. The Korshunov family is wealthier than the Melekhovs, but this is not what prevents Natalya's father from making a decision. Miron Grigoryevich is in no hurry to answer, promising to think about it.
Chapter 16
The insult inflicted by Aksinya helped Stepan to understand how much, it turns out, he loved his wife all these years. From annoyance and inability to forgive betrayal, every night he mercilessly beat a defenseless and powerless woman, forcing her to tell the details of meetings with Grigory. In such a situation, Aksinya can only count on the intercession of Gregory. But he says that he intends to finally end their relationship. Aksinya remains at the mercy of the embittered Stepan.
Chapter 17
The father sends his sons to the mowing. In Petro, in a frank conversation, he reminded Grigory of his meetings with someone else's neighbor's wife, which made Grigory very angry and received a blow from him with a pitchfork in his hands right in the side.
Chapter 18-19
Pantelei Prokofievich anxiously awaits the Korshunovs' answer. He is afraid that a wealthy farm family wants a richer groom for their beautiful daughter. But Natalya's feelings for Grigory forced her father to give in. The wedding was scheduled for the first spas.
Chapter 20
Aksinya cannot stop thinking about Grigory. She is concerned about one thought - to return Gregory, to take him away from the happy, grief-stricken homemaker.
Chapter 21-22
Wedding on the farm. Grigory Melekhov married Natalya Korshunova. Everything that happens is not to Gregory's liking. The ceremonies irritate him. He is dissatisfied with the appearance of his young wife.
Part 2 Quiet Don
Chapter 1
The Mokhov family originates from Nikishka Mokhov. Nikishka came from Voronezh. His grandson from the son of Plato, Sergey Mokhov, began to accumulate family property from scratch, since his grandfather once lost everything that his family had. Sergei Mokhov traded, had his own mill. His first wife bore him a daughter, Liza, and a son, Vladimir. Sergei Platonovich liked to host the local intelligentsia.
Chapter 2
Mitka Korshunov takes Liza Mokhova on a fishing trip. Harmless fishing ended with the mutual and passionate intimacy of young people. Rumors spread around the farm. Mitka decides to marry Lisa. Lisa's father, Sergei Platonovich, kicks the guy out of his yard and sets the dogs on him.
Chapter 3
The Melekhovs accepted Natalia as their own. Hard-working and modest, she came to the court of the head of the family. Only Grigory, unable to find the strength to forget Aksinya, was cold and indifferent. “... Natalya was reluctant to her husband's pleasures ...” “You, Natalya, your father, must have conceived you on the roof (ice) ... You are hefty icy,” her husband tells her. Gregory's wife fell in love with the Melekhov family. Grigory is still dying for Aksinya. Relations with Stepan Melekhovs did not improve.
Chapter 4-5
Iosif Shtokman, the city locksmith, appears on the farm. Using his oratorical talent, he manages to pacify the fight that ensued at the mill. The Taurians and Cossacks fought. In this fight, taking advantage of the opportunity, Mitka Korshunov beats Lisa's father, Sergei Mokhov. Grigory Melekhov, unable to contain his irritation any longer, tells Natalya about his dislike for her.
Chapter 6
Two weeks later, after a fight broke out at the mill, a bailiff and an investigator appeared in Tatarsky. The purpose of their visit is Joseph Shtokman. Shtokman is being interrogated. Farmers learn that a visiting locksmith has been convicted.
Chapter 7-8
Cossacks share brushwood. Grigory's mother, Vasilisa Ilyinichna, complains to her husband about his health and expresses suspicion of a discord in the relationship between Natalia and their son. The Melekhovs go on business and meet with Stepan behind the farm. He led the bulls home. Aksinya was left in a broken sleigh abandoned halfway. Unable to stand it, Grigory approaches Aksinya. He can no longer contain the passion raging in him.
Chapter 9
In the evenings, loud readings take place in Shtokman's house. Joseph reads to the local peasants Nekrasov, "A Brief History of the Don Cossacks." The purpose of such meetings was to instill hatred and disgust for the existing ruling system.
Chapter 10
Young Cossacks take the oath. Among them are Mitka Korshunov and Grigory Melekhov. Now they, along with the elders, can take part in Cossack gatherings. Upon returning home, Grigory learns about Natalia's decision to return to her father. Having no desire to keep his wife against her will, Grigory goes to spend the night with a friend, Koshevoi Mikhail. In the morning Grigory sees Aksinya. For the sake of a joint future, she is ready for the most desperate deeds. Desiring with all her heart to be near Grigory, Aksinya does not dare to tell him about the child.
Chapter 11
In the house of a merchant, Sergei Mokhov, Grigory meets an officer from the Yagodnoye estate, the one who overtook Mitka Korshunov on horseback. Officer Listnitsky agreed to take Gregory as his coachman. For Aksinya, he promised a place for a “black cook”.
Chapter 12-13
Natalya Mokhova leaves her husband's house and returns to her parents. In the evening, Koshevoy's sister comes to Aksinya and tells her to quickly pack up and leave. Returning home, Stepan finds only a jacket left in a hurry by Aksinya. Without restraining the rage that gripped him, he, taking a saber in his hands, shreds it into pieces.
Chapter 14
Evgeny Listnitsky, due to injury during the race, left the service and arrived at his father in Yagodnoye. The young master does not hide his interest in the new cook. Aksinya seriously occupies his thoughts.
Chapters 15-16
Holy Thursday. Shtokman starts talking about the upcoming war between Germany and France. The reason is the war for new markets and colonies. Shtokman believes that Tatarsky will also fall into the war zone. Farmers gather at the temple for procession. Mitka Korshunov finds his father in the crowd. He tells him the terrible news: "Natalia is dying!".
Chapter 17-19
Natalya is having a hard time parting with Gregory. She, secretly from everyone, sends her husband a letter asking if Grigory has decided to return home. “Live alone. Melekhov Grigory,” answers Grigory, satisfied with his life. On the way to the church, desperate Natalya hears the guys gossip about herself and her father-in-law. As if Gregory left his wife because of her connection with Pantel. Having decided to part with her life, Natalya, going into the barn, cut herself in the throat with a scythe. While hunting, Melekhov and old Listnitsky unexpectedly meet Stepan Astakhov. Stepan helps them cope with the wolf and promises Grigory to pay him for the shame - to kill him.
Chapter 20
Grigory learns from Aksinya that she is carrying his child under her heart. Labor pains come at the mowing. Grigory and Aksinya do not have time to get to the estate. The girl is born under open sky on the wagon. The Cossack himself takes birth.
Chapter 21
In the village administration, Grigory receives a document obliging him to be at the collection site immediately after Christmas. Old Panteley decides to visit his son in Yagodny. His arrival comes as a complete surprise to everyone. Pantelei Prokofich brings his son everything he needs for the service. Aksinya did not hear a single word from Father Gregory. Gregory goes to work.
Part 3
Chapter 1
Natalia's attempt to commit suicide was unsuccessful. She survived, but after this incident, the attitude towards her in her home changed. Natalya moves to the Melekhovs' house. Pantelei, wanting to be aware of the plans of his youngest son, asks in letters where he thinks to live after the end of the service. The answer of the father's son is not at all happy. Grigory intends to return to Aksinya. Melekhova Dunyasha grew up, began to run to games. She really likes Mishka Koshevoy, and the girl shares her secrets with Natalia. There is another news on the farm - Shtokman is a member of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. During a search, harmful literature was found on him, he was arrested and taken away somewhere.
Chapter 2
Radzivilovo estate. Here stands the regiment of Gregory. He does not like the bullying of the watchmen over the Cossacks and he does not hide it. Gregory comes into conflict with his colleagues at the moment when they, with the whole platoon, raped the maid. Gregory is tied up and threatened to be killed if he dares to reveal what happened.
Chapter 3-5
Mobilization. The Cossacks, called up for service, are sent by rail to the Russian-Austrian border. The news of the beginning of the war reaches Gregory. He, along with the regiment, advances in the same direction. At the Verba station, in the battle, Gregory kills an Austrian. Having previously had complete clarity in his soul, the Cossack begins to experience new ambiguous feelings. War and murder, even of the enemy, do not bring him joy.
Chapter 6-7
Cossacks Petro Melekhov and Stepan Astakhov are included in the second draft. On their way to their army, they stop for the night at an old participant in the Russian-Turkish war. old grandfather reveals to the Cossacks the secret of survival. Mitka Korshunov also goes to war. He falls into the 3rd Don Cossack Regiment named after Yermak Timofeevich.
Chapter 8-9
Stepan Astakhov - head of the post. While inspecting positions, he engages in battle with the Germans. Stepan kills the officer and puts the enemy to flight. The command did not consider it necessary to somehow note the heroic deed of Stepan and other Cossacks who distinguished themselves in the battle with the Germans. All the laurels went to the commander's favorite - Kryuchkov.
Chapter 10
The first battle leaves a heavy residue on the soul of Grigory Melekhov. He remembers the Austrian he killed. End of August. Reinforcements arrive from the Don to Gregory's regiment, located near Leshniuv. Among the Cossacks who arrived there were many acquaintances of the stanitsa and Petro Melekhov. Petro informs his brother that his wife, Natalya, has returned to her husband's house and is waiting for his return. When meeting with Stepan Astakhov, it becomes clear to the brothers that he still harbors a grudge and is looking for an opportunity to take revenge.
Chapter 11
After one of the battles, next to the killed countryman, Grigory find a notebook. A Cossack named Timothy kept a diary in which he described his relationship with Mokhovaya Lisa. Liza did not show sincere feelings for Timofey, allowed insulting words, forced him to spend money and, as a result, refused to meet. Out of desperation, Timothy went to war.
Chapter 12
Grigory Melekhov meets Alexei Uryupin, nicknamed Chubaty. This soldier was distinguished by his cruel attitude only to the enemy, but in general to everyone around him. Chubaty tried to impress Grigory with his life position. Taught him a special saber strike.
Chapter 13
During the battle, Gregory kills a Hungarian officer and himself gets hit on the head from behind. Gregory loses consciousness.
Chapter 14-15
Listnitsky is transferred to the Cossack army regiment. Its goal is to serve for the glory of the Russian monarchy. Listnitsky is assigned to the headquarters of the Bereznyags. Here he has a friend, volunteer Ilya Bunchuk.
Chapter 16-17
Gregory's family receives a letter about the death of their youngest son. Hardly experiencing such news, they celebrated a commemoration with priest Vissarion. Soon the Melekhovs receive another letter. The eldest son Petro reports that Gregory is alive and became a junior officer, and was also presented to the St. George Cross.
Chapter 18
Longing for Gregory, Natalya does not lose hope that at the end of the war her husband will return to the family. Unable to just sit and wait, she decides to go to Aksinya and ask her to back off from Grigory. Another daughter-in-law of the Melekhovs, Daria, behaves differently. She is pleased with the courtship of young guys who are not called up for service, she entertains herself at games.
Chapter 19
Aksinya Astakhova rejoices at every infrequent news from Grigory. With trepidation, she rereads every line about his life in the war. One Sunday, Natalya comes to Aksinya. Aksinya's tone was mocking. With the air of a winner, she ridiculed Natalya, from whom the striking resemblance in the face of the daughter of Aksinya and Grigory did not hide. Having achieved nothing, sobbing, Natalya returns home.
Chapter 20-21
Having come to his senses after being wounded, Grigory Melekhov is moving eastward. On the way, he helps a wounded officer. The Cossack patrol notices the wounded and delivers them to the dressing station. For his help, officer George was awarded the St. George Cross of the 4th degree. Immediately upon returning to the regiment, Melekhov comes under bombardment from an airplane and is wounded in the eye. A military doctor sends a Cossack to Moscow, to the hospital of Dr. Snegirev.
Chapter 22
Listnitsky receives a double wound. Yevgeny's head and leg are hurt. The centurion is sent to the Warsaw hospital. In the Yagodnoye estate, Aksinya's little daughter Tanyushka dies, having not suffered from scarlet fever. Aksinya's grief knows no bounds. After the hospital, Yevgeny Listnitsky comes to the estate on vacation. Seeing no obstacles, he again takes care of Aksinya. This time, the young master achieves the desired goal.
Chapter 23
Gregory has another very significant acquaintance for him. In the hospital of Snegirev, a soldier, Ukrainian Andrei Garanzhoy, is with him. The new acquaintance mercilessly scolded the war and the authorities, thanks to which this very war happened. In complete confusion, Gregory begins to understand more and more clearly that Garanzhoy, with irresistible force, drop by drop with his speeches, destroys him, Gregory, his convictions about duty, homeland and king. After the hospital, Grigory Melekhov goes to the hospital in the city of Tver to heal a wound on his head. During a visit to the hospital of a person of the imperial family, Gregory, as a hero, is presented separately. He, in turn, being under the influence of new feelings and emotions, deliberately shows his disrespect. The war hero is deprived of food and sent home.
Chapter 24
Grigory returns to Yagodnoye. From Sasha's grandfather, the gentleman's groom, he learns everything about Aksinya and the young Listnitsky. Without showing a view, Melekhov invites Listnitsky to take a ride as once on a cab. Having driven away from the estate, Grigory beats the owner's son with a whip and legs. Upon returning to the estate, not listening to Aksinya's explanations, he stabs her in the face with a whip and leaves for his father's house. Grigory Melekhov returns to his legal wife Natalia.
Book 2 Quiet Flows the Don
Part 4
Chapter 1
Year 1916. Troubled October. The officers, including Listnitsky and Bunchuk, speak of imminent soldier mutinies. Bunchuk, being a member of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, speaks about this to his colleagues and declares the revolution as an inevitable fact. Yevgeny Listnitsky immediately reports to the command about the views of Bunchuk. Bunchuk becomes a deserter.
Chapter 2
Soldiers find leaflets in the trenches calling for the overthrow of the autocracy, an end to the war and the unification of all working people. The strictest searches do not bring results. The officers fail to find a propagandist of ideological infection among the Cossacks. Bunchuk successfully meets like-minded people and secures new fake documents.
Chapter 3
A third Cossack hundred advanced from the Tatarsky farm to the war. With the headquarters of the 80th division, the fighters advanced into the territory of close combat. The former miller of Mokhov, and now a soldier, named Valet, during a search of enemy dugouts, discovers an Austrian soldier. Contrary to common sense Jack releases the enemy. The reason is an Austrian, just as the miller calls himself a Social Democrat.
Chapter 4
In the native walls, Grigory Melekhov was surrounded by care and love, but Aksinya still did not go out of his head. Upon returning to the front, Melekhov, as if on purpose, seeks death, commits the most desperate deeds, goes crazy. After the betrayal experienced, the heart of the Cossack became hardened, became ruthless. Behind military merit Georgy Melekhov is awarded the St. George Cross and medals four times. In one of the battles, Gregory once again receives a severe wound. The coarsened Grigory Mokhov begins to communicate closely with Chubaty, who denies the war as a way to resolve any issues.
Chapter 5-6
It is not easy for Pantelei Melekhov to run a household without the help of his sons. Natalia tried to be always there and help in everything. Panteley and Ilyinichna fell in love with Natalya as their own. Soon Mishatka and Polyushka are born to Natalya and Grigory. Stories about the betrayals of Darya Melekhova reached Peter. It was rumored that even Stepan Astakhov did not stand aside. They also said that Stepan died in the war and Petro, being far from home, dreamed of how he would punish Daria - he would knock out her eye. Tolerate gossip about the unlucky daughter-in-law Pantelei Mokhov could no longer. The old man, for the purpose of admonishment, departed Darya with a belt.
Chapter 7
Sergei Platonovich Mokhov receives news that there is no more autocracy. The news of the overthrow reaches the farm. Not understanding how to live on, the local Cossacks turn to Mokhov for advice. The merchant's answer makes the farmers worry. Sergei Platonovich prophesies the equalization of the Cossack and the peasant, the deprivation of all privileges, the settling of accounts for old grievances. Sergei Platonovich is overcome by despair. All his efforts to increase family capital are in vain. Relations with children did not work out. From a conversation with Yevgeny Listnitsky, he learns that the soldiers began to behave like unbridled and unruly bandits.
Chapter 8-9
The troops announced the overthrow of Nicholas II. The Cossacks take an oath to the Provisional Government. The men are tired of the war. It only takes one spark, one example, one runaway, and most will follow suit. Unexpectedly, Daria appears at the front to Pyotr Melekhov. With joy, Petro forgets about the desire to take revenge on his unlucky wife. Chapter 10
Yevgeny Listnitsky was transferred to the 14th regiment for further service. A larger number of Cossacks here supported the theme of the restoration of the dynasty.
Chapter 11
General Kornilov takes command of the Southwestern Front. Yevgeny Listnitsky is trying to do everything to support the general. He calls on the officers to conduct explanatory work among the military Cossacks in order to withdraw them from the influence of the Bolsheviks.
Chapter 12-14
The actions of Yevgeny Listnitsky were inconclusive. The Cossacks refused to support the idea of returning the monarchy. In Petrograd, Listnitsky learns from the officers about Kornilov's plans to establish his own dictatorship in Russia, where the Cossacks should become the decisive counter-revolutionary force.
Chapter 15
A program is being developed to strengthen Kornilov's forces at the expense of the Cossacks. In parallel, the ideas of the Chairman of the Provisional Government Kornilov began to be propagated among the soldiers. The men show dissatisfaction with the emerging dual power. Cossack Silin Ivan Alekseevich, confident that the only fair power is the Bolshevik, refuses to obey the orders of the officers and lead the soldiers to help Kornilov.
Chapter 16, 17
Realizing the obviousness of his failure, Kornilov, like a drowning man, tries to grab onto a straw and turns to one of the adherents of the White movement of Kaledin for help. To the Cossacks sent to Kornilov, the Bolshevik Bunchuk sits in the car. The Cossack tells his compatriots about the situation in Petrograd, trying to convince the soldiers to unite against the Karnilov region. Cossacks organize a rally. Attempts by officers to neutralize Bunchuk were unsuccessful. Bunchuk shoots officer Kalmykov, who turned to the Cossacks with a request to continue the journey to Petrograd and side with Kornilov.
Chapter 18
The Provisional Government decides to appoint General Alekseev as Commander-in-Chief. Kornilov is arrested.
Chapter 19
Despite recent events, Listnitsky continues to train troops to protect the former commander in chief. Having received the order to be ready for battle, the vast majority of soldiers go over to the "reds".
Chapter 20
The news of the October Revolution finds Kornilov in Bykhovo, in a prison cell. Kaledin, an associate of Kornilov, forms detachments on the Don. Among them are the Don, Kuban and Terek troops. Protection of Kornilov was conditional. And the prisoner freely leaves Bykhovo.
Chapter 21
The October Revolution gave the Cossacks courage. Many of them deserted. Mikhail Koshevoy, dismisses the captured deserters, catching himself thinking that he has no right to punish them, since he himself is a categorical opponent of the war.
Part 5
Chapter 1
The war claimed the lives of many Cossacks from Tatarsky. Among those who returned is Petro Melekhov. He informs his relatives that Grishka is now with the Bolsheviks.
Chapter 2
1917 January. Grigory Melekhov promoted to cornet. He becomes the commander of the Red Guard hundreds. Izvarin shares with him the idea of creating an independent Don state, headed by the Cossack Circle. Izvarin believed that the Reds would certainly take over the Cossack territories. November 1917 brought Grigory another important acquaintance for him. Fyodor Podtelkov, commander of the revolutionary Cossacks, convinces Melekhov of the importance of people's power for the Cossack people.
Chapter 3
Soldiers and officers hiding from the revolution gathered in Novocherkassk. Kaledin controls the situation in the city.
Chapter 4-5
Novocherkassk Cossack Ilya Bunchuk in Rostov receives instructions from the party leadership on organizing a machine gun team. Bunchuk recruits 16 people, including Anna Pogudko, a Jew. During the training of the team in shooting from a machine gun, Ilya treats Anna with a special predilection. Ilya Budko falls in love.
Chapter 6
End of November. The White Guards moved to Rostov. The barrier was provided by a detachment of Budko machine gunners. They provided the Bolsheviks with cover for a counterattack.
Chapter 7
The fighting dragged on for 6 days. It's not easy for Anna to shoot people. Bunchuk does his best to help her. Ilya suffers from typhus. His condition is deteriorating.
Chapter 8, 9
In order to attract the Cossacks to themselves, the Bolsheviks decide to hold a Cossack congress in Kamenskaya. Khrisanf Tokin and Ivan Alekseevich Sinilin were participants in this congress and invited residents from Tatarsky with them. Among those who categorically did not go were Petr Melekhov and Mitka Korshunov. By decision of the assembled Cossacks, power in the village passed to the military revolutionary committee chaired by Podtelkov. The Military Revolutionary Committee sends a delegation to Novocherkassk for negotiations.
Chapter 10, 11
The delegation of the Military Revolutionary Committee arrived in Novocherkassk. Under escort, she is escorted to the hall of the regional government. Kaledin was also present there. Protracted discussions did not bring the desired result. The Don White government categorically refused to hand over the reins of government to the Provisional Revolutionary Committee. Detachments of Chernetsov's White Guards capture Kamenskaya and drive out the Reds.
Chapter 12
Grigory Melekhov with a detachment settled in the village of Kamenskaya. The young Listnitsky is also here. Anger at the young master flares up in Grigory with new force. He still, no matter what, loves Aksinya. The Red Guards, and Grigory with them, retreat to the village of Glubokaya. The White Guard detachments also entered there in the morning. The "Reds" put up serious resistance to the enemy. Among those who entered the battle were Grigory Melekhov and Anna Pogudko. The fight ended with the victory of the Bolshevik detachments. What happened later hurt Gregory unpleasantly. By order of Podletkov, the Bolsheviks perpetrated a brutal massacre on the prisoners.
Chapter 13
During the battle near the village of Glubokaya, Grigory Melekhov is wounded in the leg. Infirmary week. Pantelei comes for his son. The father did not share the political convictions of Gregory. Angry at him. Grigory, in turn, tried to explain to his father what was happening, to convince him that he was right, although doubts from the massacre of the captured White Guards still did not allow him to sleep peacefully. The whole family met Gregory in his home. The fact that Natalya has changed and has become more beautiful than a woman does not escape him. With excitement, Gregory seated his children on his knees, who managed to grow up without a father.
Chapter 14-15
The uprising in Taganrog consolidated the actions of the Red Army. Upon learning of the retreat of the Volunteer Army to the borders of the Kuban, Kaledin resigns, hands over the reins of government to the city duma and commits suicide.
Chapter 16, 17
Ilya lay unconscious for three weeks, suffering from typhus. He is being transported to Tsaritsyn. Constantly located next to Bunchuk Anna. Having recovered, Ilya and Anna are sent to Voronezh, where they have to leave. Bunchuk is sent to the Southern Front, Anna is sent to Lugansk as an agitator.
Chapter 18
In the south, the representative of power was General Nazarov. The Cossacks do not obey the order to mobilize. The Bolsheviks are actively campaigning. Part of the regiments goes to them. Chernov's troops enter Rostov. Listnichky is in one of the regiments. He thinks more and more about the house and Aksinya.
Chapter 19
Ilya Bunchuk stays with the detachment at the Krivlyanskaya station. The head of the Cossack Circle of Nazarov is under arrest. Bunchuk was transferred to Rostov. Here Ilya sees Anna. She offers Bunchuk to live with her relatives.
Chapter 20
Ilya is a member of the Revolutionary Tribunal. He does not sleep at night, commands the executions of White Guard soldiers and officers. Bunchuk's health is undermined. Anna advises Ilya to leave this occupation. Bunchuk refuses. Rostov is covered by a wave of robbery riots. Bunchuk decides to return to the Revolutionary Committee.
Chapter 21
A detachment of Red Guards stops in Setrakovo. The Bolsheviks get drunk and arrange chaos. The Cossacks urgently form an army and defeat the "red" fighters. April. Unrest begins on the territory of the Donetsk region. From the union of the upper farms, the Verkhnedonsky district is formed. It was headed by General Alferov.
Chapter 22-23
The red troops are defeated. Mikhail Koshevoy, Knave and other Bolsheviks urgently leave the Tatarsky farm. Among those who remained in their homes were Grigory Melekhov, Khrisanf Tokin (Christononya) and Ivan Alekseevich Silin (Brekh). Each Cossack had personal motives for such an act. A meeting of Cossacks is taking place on the Maidan. The question is being decided how to act in the conditions of the frequent attacks of the Bolshevik detachments on the village of Setrakovskaya. They decided to restore self-government, and from the front-line soldiers to create a detachment to protect the Cossack economy. Korshunov Miron Grigorievich was nominated ataman. Pyotr Melekhov took command of the detachment. Confident that the war is over forever, the Cossacks, without fear, are enrolled in the detachment.
Chapter 24-25
The Red detachments left Rostov. Near the village, Ilya Bunchuk and Anna are waiting for the Cossacks. When an enemy detachment appears, Anna tries to divert attention to herself. Bunchuk stops Anna, but to no avail. Anna leads the Cossack detachment behind her. In the shootout, Anna, wounded, dies.
Chapter 26
It is not easy for Bunchuk to survive the death of his beloved woman. Left without Anna, “he lived as if in a typhoid delirium,” everything around him lost any meaning. In the south, through the Don region, the red detachments depart. German troops are breaking forward.
Chapter 27
The retreating "red" detachments were not kindly met by the locals. This was especially felt as we approached the Don villages. When meeting with the Cossacks, the soldiers take the fight.
Chapter 28-29
A detachment of Red Guards surrounds Podtelkov. The soldiers decide to surrender. Disarmed and locked in Ponomarev, the soldiers were left to wait for their fate. The Cossacks decide to execute the prisoners.
Chapter 30
At dawn, the Cossack detachment of Peter Melekhov appears. It includes Gregory. Melekhov is asked to give people to carry out the sentence. Petro refuses. Mitka Korshunov, contrary to the decision of the commander, goes to help voluntarily. Grigory Melekhov in last time communicates with Podtelkov. The red commander tried to offend Gregory more painfully, accusing him of betrayal and seeking personal gain. “Well, are you shooting brothers? Wow what are you…” Melekhov, hurt to the core, reminds Podtelkov how he once gave orders for execution. The commander of the Reds was the last to be executed. Parting words Podtelkova was the promise of the inevitable establishment of Soviet power throughout Russia.
Chapter 31
Near the farm Nizhne-Yablonskoye, Mishka Koshevoy and Jack fall into the hands of the Cossacks. Jacks are killed. According to the Cossack orders, Mishka Koshevoy was given a public flogging with rods and left to live with such shame. Koshevoy goes to the front. At the grave of the Jack, an old man unknown to anyone puts an oak chapel with the face of the Mother of God. Book III
Part 6
Chapter 1
1918 April was marked by a big partition on the Don. A significant number of the Cossacks of the northern district took the side of the Reds. "Nizovtsy" steadily pushed them back from their territory. End of April. Don released from the Red Army. The Cossacks form a Circle. Pantelei Prokofievich and Bogatyrev arrived at the Circle as delegates. Upper Don is preparing to defend against the German attack. The enemy soon appeared. At Korshunov, German soldiers tried to confiscate the horse. Pantelei Prokofievich, the German teaches what kind of power to choose. General Krasnov becomes ataman over the Cossacks.
Chapter 2-3
The Germans are hosting on the Don, taking away everything that can be taken away. Wagons sent food and even cattle to Germany. On the Ukrainian border, the Cossacks are fighting with the Petliurites. Per Melekhov's detachment is part of the 22nd regiment. The Cossacks are chasing the Reds. Petro tries to talk with his brother Gregory about his beliefs and future plans. Gregory replies that he does not have a firm conviction about who he should stay with. Petro is worried: “Look how the people were divided, bastards! As if they rode with a plow ... ". Koshevoy becomes a groom in Veshenskaya.
Chapter 4
On the Don, opposition detachments were formed under the command of Denikin. He is extremely dissatisfied with Krasnov, who allowed the presence of the Germans here. In order to defeat the Bolshevik and German forces on the territory of Russia, a “white” Eastern Front is being created. Chapter 5
The Kornilovites retreat towards the Kuban. The White Guard Listnitsky was once again wounded twice. For a full recovery, he stops in Novocherkassk with a friend named Gorchakov. Eugene falls in love. The subject of his love is Olga Nikolaevna, the wife of a friend. After some time, both friends return to the front. Mortally wounded Gorchakov asks Listnitsky not to leave his wife. In the next battle, Listnitsky loses his arm and leaves the service. Olga Gorchakova visits him in the hospital. They are getting married. The newlyweds are returning to the Listnitsky estate.
Chapter 6
On the way to the capital, Koshevoy meets Astakhov, who was declared dead in Tatarsky. He has changed a lot. The Cossack looks like a fashionable foreign dandy. It turns out that the wounded Cossack was with the Germans. He was cured. There he stayed, thinking that forever. He yearned for his native side and returned.
Chapter 7
Returning to his native land, Astakhov did not go home. He asked to stay with Anikushka's wife. Having found out where and how Aksinya lives, he invites her to return. Not daring at first to take such a step, Aksinya, upon receiving a payment at the Yagodnoye estate, returns to her husband.
Chapter 8-9
Cossack hundreds, advancing beyond the Don, rob and loot. The younger Melekhov flatly forbids his Cossacks to rob the people. The command did not like Melekhov's principles. It saw in this the complicity of the Bolshevik authorities. Melekhov loses his Cossack hundreds and leads a platoon. Pantelei Melekhov and Daria visit their youngest son. Before that, the father visited the eldest son and he endowed him with a good share of the goods taken from him. local residents. Panteley was very pleased, and expected no worse reception from Grigory. Hearing about this, Grigory seriously quarrels Pantel. Melekhov senior is upset by his son's demotion to the platoon.
Chapter 10
The Cossack detachments are retreating. Melekhov decides to leave the regiment without permission and return to his family.
Chapter 11-12
The Cossacks in parts are atrocious and conflict with each other. Petro Melekhov tries to maintain a trusting relationship with the rank and file. Otherwise, he may repeat the fate of officers shot by soldiers. Bolshevik agitators are actively working among the loose Cossacks. The Cossacks hardly understand what political workers are trying to achieve from them. Following his brother, unable to endure what is happening anymore, Petro Melekhov returns to Tatarskoye.
Chapter 13
The eldest son tells his family about the extremely difficult situation on the Northern Front. He talks about the retreat of the Cossack detachments. After seriously weighing all the pros and cons, the Melekhovs decide not to leave the farm.
Chapter 14
Krasnov not only quickly leaves fighting positions, but also loses respect among the Cossacks.
Chapter 15-16
The Tatarsky includes a Red Army detachment. Five soldiers were determined to stay with Panteley Prokofievich. The stay of strangers in the Melekhovs' house ends with a quarrel between one of the soldiers, who shot the owner's dog, with Grigory and the commander's apologies for the unworthy behavior of his people.
Chapter 17
Detachments of the Reds go and go through the Tatarsky farm. Pantelei Prokofievich, taking precautions and wanting to save the household from ruin, injures the legs of his horses. In the house near Anikushka, the Red Guards arranged a feast. Cossacks were invited to participate in the festivities. In Grigory Melekhov, the soldiers recognize the White Guard and decide to take his life. Gregory is warned. He runs to the other side of the Don.
Chapter 18
The Bolsheviks run the farm. The Cossacks were ordered to hand over their weapons. Brecht is appointed red ataman. Mishka Koshevoy becomes the deputy.
Chapter 19
The news reaches the farm about the appearance of the red tribunal, which administers a cruel trial over all those who did not obey the order. The Melekhovs, together with others, handed over their weapons. Only Pantelei Prokofievich hid a machine gun and one rifle. Trouble came to the Melekhovs' house. Panteley succumbed to typhus.
Chapter 20-21
Grigory Melekhov returns to the farm. Considering it necessary to talk, he visits Ivan Alekseevich. Between the Cossacks, a dispute about the new government is tied. Gregory scolds the Bolshevik government. In his opinion, without giving anything to the Cossacks, she took many lives. The idea of universal equality seems unrealistic to him. All attempts by Brecht and Mishka Koshevoy to convince Melekhov of the opposite did not bring results. Brecht and Mishka harbored a grudge against Koshevoy.
Chapter 22
The reprisal of the Chekists over the enemies of the revolution began. Tatarsky did not bypass. Iosif Davydovich Shtokman, who survived in exile, appears.
Chapter 23
Miron Grigorievich Korshunov was shot. Petro Melekhov, taking with him another Cossack, at night they find the body of Korshunov and take him to his relatives.
Chapter 24
Shtokman takes control revolutionary committee. May 4th. Maidan. At the call of Brekh, the Cossacks gather to talk. Everyone agrees about the vain execution of the farmers and the intention of the Bolsheviks to eradicate the Cossacks. Shtokman voices the names of "enemies of the revolution". The Melekhov family is also among the objectionable.
Chapter 25
Shtokman orders the arrest of Grigory Melekhov. The Melekhovs' house is being searched to find illegally stored weapons. Grigory himself could not be found either at home or in Singin with relatives.
Chapter 26
Pantelei Prokofievich recovers and is arrested. Gregory learns about the bad news from his brother Peter. He speaks of the need for Grigory to take refuge on the Rybny farm. Petro will start a rumor that his brother is now in Singin.
Chapter 27
Hearths of Cossack uprisings sweep through the farms. From impending unrest, Mishka Koshevoy runs to the Tatarsky farm. Antip Brekhovich appears on the way of Koshevoy. Antip stabs Mishka with a pitchfork and leaves him to die. Having come to his senses, the wounded Koshevoy gets to Stepan Astakhov. The mother advises her son to leave the farm. Mikhail Koshevoy fulfills her request.
Chapter 28
Encouraged by rumors of Cossack uprisings, Grigory arrives in Tatarsky. The Cossack decided in his opinion to stand up to fight until the end of his days for the freedom of the Cossacks, "For a piece of bread, for a plot of land, for the right to life ..."
Chapter 29
Mikhail Koshevoy appears on the Bolshoy farm, which is under the Bolsheviks. Mishka, detained by the soldiers, is saved by Shtokman, who explained to the Bolsheviks that Koshevoy is his own man.
Chapter 30-31
For further hostilities on the Tatar farm, two Cossack hundreds are created. One of the detachments was headed by Petro Melekhov. Gregory leads the Cossacks in reconnaissance. A skirmish ensues between the rebels and the Bolsheviks. The Cossacks capture the red commander Likhachev and put forward their own conditions for him. Likhachev refuses. The rebels put him to death.
Chapter 32
Cossack unrest seized more and more territories near the Don. The borders of hostilities reached the Tatar.
Chapter 33-34
A detachment of Reds with Mishka Koshevoy breaks through to the rebels. Peter and his people take refuge in a ravine. Mishka wants to lure out the Cossack detachment and promises to save their lives if they surrender. The Cossacks, believing, go out. Mishka shoots at Melekhov. The rest of the Cossacks were waiting to be killed by red checkers.
Chapter 35
Grigory Melekhov takes command of the Veshensky Regiment. The active offensive of his regiment in early March forces the Reds to leave their positions. The ranks of the rebels are growing. Gregory became embittered. He avenges the death of his brother by mercilessly executing captured Red Guards.
Chapter 36-37
Grigory Melekhov receives instructions from the headquarters to stop executions of prisoners. They need to be brought in for questioning. Gregory does not obey the order, believing that he is doing absolutely the right thing. Gregory himself raises the Cossacks to the attack, repeatedly demonstrating military skill and dexterity. Spilling out resentment and anger, Grigory begins to feel tired. He no longer wants to be responsible for other people's lives. The former human feelings are gradually returning to the Cossack.
Chapter 38
Kudinov summons Grigory Melekhov to Veshenskaya. He is present at the military council, where the Cossack comes to understand another deception of the common people. Gregory sees that the rebels are acting on orders from white generals who are only concerned about their power.
Chapter 39-40
March ends. The Reds and the rebels equalized their fighting positions. The fighting stopped for two months. Shtokman, Brecht and Koshevoy flee from Tatarsky and join the 4th Zaamursky regiment. Further, their path lay on the Krutovsky farm.
Chapter 41-42
The village of Karginskaya became an important stronghold of the rebels. The Cossacks keep the defense here under the command of Grigory Melekhov. Thanks to a well-designed plan by Gregory, the Cossacks win the battle with the Reds. The rebels spend their days in carousing and drinking. Large stocks of alcohol weakened the Cossacks and interfered with order. Grigory Melekhov is weighed down by heavy thoughts. He has a desire to die, life has fed him. Once a Cossack who cares for discipline, hits all the hard. Over a glass of vodka, Medvedev offers Melekhov to replace Kudinov. Gregory refuses.
Chapter 43
The Cossack detachments, having drunk enough of the war, stupidly and brutally get involved in the battle. The fate of the prisoners who fell into their hands is hard to envy. Despite the approaching bad time, Kudinov agitates the Cossacks not to think about sowing work, but to continue the fight against the enemy.
Chapter 44
The rebels almost lost the battle near Klimovka. The situation was corrected by Grigory Melekhov, who deployed the detachment in a timely manner and sent it to attack the enemy machine gunners. Gregory has a nervous attack. The Cossacks, unable to calm Melekhov, tie him up.
Chapter 45
Grigory Melekhov arrives in Veshenskaya. Here, from the local Cossacks, he learns that the rebel power is even worse than the communist one. Old men and women from those families where at least one person supported the communists are imprisoned. Beside himself with rage, Gregory arbitrarily releases all those under arrest.
Chapter 46
A mass unauthorized withdrawal of the Cossacks from the front began. The earth was calling. I had to start sowing. Gregory had to cultivate not only his allotment, but also the land of the Korshunovs. Grandfather Grishak quotes Gregory from the Bible, assuring him of an absolutely senseless war against the incoming power. “All power comes from God,” says Grishak. Natalya reproaches Gregory for his wild way of life in the war. Fuel is added to the fire by Daria, who undertook to flirt with Melekhov. Melekhov and Natalya quarrel.
Chapter 47
Voronovsky, an officer in the tsarist army, and in the recent past a red commissar, takes the side of the rebels. Serdobsky regiment, under his command, passes to Kudinov. Kudinov orders the soldiers to hand over the communist accomplices and transport them to Veshenskoye. There they were supposed to administer lynching of the prisoners.
Chapter 48
“On April 12, the 1st Moscow Regiment was severely battered in battle with the rebels near the Antoyov farm of the Yelanskaya village.” The wounded Ivan Alekseevich is taken out from the battlefield by Koshevoy. Among the Serdobians, a reluctance to go against the Cossacks is spreading. Voronovsky conducts anti-communist conversations. With a report on the current situation, Shtokman sends Mishka to the political department.
Chapter 49
Serdobtsy organized a rally. Shtokman is killed here after his call to stand up against the whites. Communists, including Ivan Alekseevich Sinilin, are arrested.
Chapter 50
Grigory stays at home for less than a week. He receives news of unrest in the Serdobsky regiment. Melekhov goes to Karginskaya. On the way by the river, he meets Aksinya. Gregory's plans change. He will stay. Pantelei Prokofievich, who watched the picture of the meeting, was very dissatisfied, but he could not afford remarks about his son. His son became a general. Aksinya, through Daria, who received a ring for the service, calls Gregory to her. As it got dark, Grigory and Aksinya meet.
Chapter 51
Returning in the morning, Grigory turned away to Natalya, as if he had been talking with Kudinov all this time. Grigory leaves for Karginskaya. Here he is entrusted with the 1st division. From Kudinov's message, Grigory learns about the joining of the Serdobsky regiment to the rebels and about the arrest of the communists. Melekhov decides to release Brekh and Mishka Koshevoy in order to find out exactly who is responsible for the death of his older brother.
Chapter 52-53
Bogatyrev arrives in Singin. It is delivered by airplane. Bogatyrev reports a breakthrough through the front line of the Don Army, which will very soon join the Cossack ranks. Chapter 54
The convoy escorts the Reds from the Serdobsky regiment to the village of Veshenskaya. In their number goes Ivan Alekseevich Sinilin (Brekh). On the way, the prisoners are beaten by the peasants.
Chapter 55
The command of the rebels comes out with a request to the Don government for assistance. The government agrees. The Cossacks receive weapons and reinforcements.
Chapter 56
The convoy with exhausted prisoners arrives at the Tatarsky farm. At the sight of Brekh, Daria, wanting to pay off for Peter, shoots him with a rifle. Melekhov is told about Darya's act and that neither Mishka's former friend nor Shtokman was among the escorted.
Chapter 57-58
The Reds are active. May. Gregory is summoned to a meeting in the village of Veshenskaya. He receives an order to break through the front line on his own. Cossack writes a letter to Astakhova with a request to leave together.
Chapter 59
22nd of May. The mass retreat of the rebels throughout the right bank. The Cossacks concede every line with a fight.
Chapter 60
Aksinya receives news from Melekhov. The Reds, capturing the farms, set fire to the huts of the rich.
Chapter 61
Grigory, having received news of the movement of refugees and soldiers beyond the Don, gives the order to retreat. Having crossed with his army to the opposite shore, he orders to take up combat positions and create defensive fortifications.
Chapter 62
Aksinya, having crossed, is accommodated with a relative in the village of Veshenskaya. At the request of Melekhov, Prokhor Zykov brings Aksinya to Grigory. For two days, Grigory and Aksinya forget about everything in the world.
Chapter 63
General Melekhov arrives in Tatarsky. Here, from his father, he learns that Natalya has typhus and therefore they have not moved anywhere. Pantelei Prokofievich is dissatisfied with his son. He doesn't care about children or wife. He again fornicates with Aksinya.
Chapter 64
Kudinov tells Melekhov about receiving ammunition from the White Guards and that they themselves are already on their way to the rebel detachments.
Chapter 65
Mishka Koshevoy, who is in the 33rd Kuban division, is pursuing Melekhov's detachments. Koshevoy appears on the Tatarsky farm. Finding no one at home, he goes to the Korshunovs' house and meets with grandfather Grishak. He scolds Koshevoy for going over to the Reds. The bear is angry at the senile tediousness, shoots at Grishak and burns his grandfather along with the house. Vasilisa Ilyinichna Melekhova Kosheva announces her intention to marry her daughter and promises to take revenge if anything. For his own greater pleasure, Mishka Koshevoy sets fire to several huts and leaves.
Book 4 Quiet Don Sholokhov
Part 7
Chapter 1
Thanks to the Upper Don uprising, the Red troops retreated from the Southern Front. By decision of the command of the Don Army, there is a regrouping of the military forces that defended Novocherkassk, as well as the concentration of the strike group near the stations of Kamenskaya and Ust-Belokalitvenskaya. The population of Tatarsky are on the other side of the Don. Stepan Astakhov sends through Anikushka a request for a meeting for Aksinya. Aksinya arrives at the Tatarsky farm, at the location of the Cossack hundred. After staying with her husband for one day, she leaves again, explaining the decision by her unwillingness to remain among the peasants.
Chapter 2
At night, near the farm of Maly Gromchonok, the Reds moved on rafts to the other side of the Don. They were met by the drunken Cossacks of the Gromovskaya Hundred, who were not ready for defense. The defense was broken. The Cossacks took to flight. Grigory Melekhov with his people rushes to the rescue. The general's threats had an effect on the fugitives. The Cossacks returned to their positions. Grigory Melekhov once again earned the respect of the Cossacks. The morning attack of the Reds was repulsed. The Cossacks did not allow enemy reinforcements to cross the Don.
Chapter 3
The captured Red Army soldiers were temporarily closed in the stable, after which they were escorted to the village to decide their fate. One of the prisoners pretends to be crazy. The old Cossack woman asks not to touch the blessed one and leave it to her. The Cossacks agree. Later, the old woman notices the soldier's deception, gives him provisions and lets him go with God.
Chapter 4
Ilyinichna and Natalya still lived on the farm. Natalia began to feel better. Typhoid retreated. The Reds also retreated, quickly leaving Tatarskoye. The Cossacks returned. Pantelei Melekhov also returned.
Chapter 5
1919 July. The Don army breaks through the front and forces the Reds to retreat. Cossacks fall under the rule of white officers. They are unhappy. They are in command again. Chapter 6 Grigory Melekhov, having crossed the Don with two horse regiments, heads south. On the way, he stops at Yagodnoe. Here he finds only the much aged cook Lukerya. He learns about the death of a groom who rushed to protect the mare. The mare was taken away, the foal and Sasha were shot dead. Grigory buries the old man next to the grave of Tanya's daughter.
Chapter 7
The White Guards who arrived to help the Cossacks are greeted with great joy. There are also those who swear allegiance to them. Grigory Melekhov does not see anything good in this, he understands that the need makes the Cossacks bow at the officer's feet. After leaving the magnificent feast, Grigory goes to Aksinya, who still lives with her aunt. Here he meets Astakhov. Aksinya, who returned with a bottle of moonshine, is frightened by this meeting. Stepan invites Melekhov to the table. Grigory, Stepan and Aksinya drink without saying a word.
Chapter 8
Grigory finds the orderly Secretov. He urgently calls the Cossack to him. Gregory decides not to hurry with the visit and first go home. The family met Gregory with great joy. He felt uncomfortable. Grigory starts a serious conversation with Dunya about her sympathy for Mishka Koshevoy. Grigory threatens to personally kill his sister if she does not forget about the killer of their brother. Having quarreled with his relatives, Gregory leaves.
Chapter 9-10
Military operations with the Reds continue. Ammunition and weapons are extremely scarce. Among the Cossacks heavy losses. Kopylov and Melekhov are heading to the White Guard General Fitskhelaurov. On the way, Grigory criticizes the behavior of the White Guards, who provoke the Cossacks and cause their discontent with their behavior. Kopylov disagrees. He sees Bolshevik notes in Melekhov's views.
The Cossack general again thinks about who is fairer, believing that the Reds would treat him much better. Fitskhelaurov brings to the attention of Melekhov and Kopylov information about the infusion of Cossacks into the Don army. Between the Cossack and the White Guard generals, a conversation takes place in raised tones, containing the threat of Melekhov to cut down the White Guard. Gregory was asked to lead his people in a southeasterly direction. Melekhov refuses, deciding to obey exclusively Kudinov.
Chapter 11
The White Guards are fighting desperately with the Reds. The Cossacks are in no hurry to be active. For what? Gregory thinks. Kopylov, who headed the headquarters, was killed. Thoughts again overcome Gregory. The war with the Reds seems to him nonsense, he does not like the policy of the Whites ... What to do next?
Chapter 12
Three days have passed since Gregory's departure. Natalya's brother Mitka appears on the farm. With him are two colleagues in the punitive detachment. Korshunov was promoted to the cadet for active participation in executions of the Reds and participation in punitive operations. Korshunov visited the ashes of his native home, found out who did this. Mitka was welcome in the Melekhovs' house. From them the cadet went to the house of the Koshevs. Mitka coolly melts with the mother of his enemy Koshevoy and small children. The White Guard command arrives at the farm. Gather gathering. Pantelei Prokofievich brings bread and salt to the guests. The command publicly rewards Daria with money for her murdered husband and presents a medal on the St. George ribbon for the execution of a communist.
Chapter 13
The war changed the way of life in the Melekhov family. The owner was no longer here. Dunya didn't listen to anyone. Natalia spent most of her time with the children. Daria continued to live as she wanted and categorically refused Panteley part of the money received for Petro. Daria confesses to Natalya that she has a "bad illness". The women told about the syphilis infection in Darya Ilyinichna. She gave her a separate dish. They decided not to say anything to Panteley. Daria thinks that she is ready to part with her life.
Chapter 14
Daria is angry with herself and everyone around. Not wanting to suffer alone, she gladly tells Natalya how she helped her husband in meetings with Aksinya. Natalya was worried, but did not hold a grudge against her relative, understanding what was happening to her.
Chapter 15
The united armies of the rebels and the Don army are pushing the red detachments to the north. The division under the command of Grigory Melekhov is fighting near Shashkin, helping the infantry of General Sutulov. About two hundred Reds were captured, four machine guns and eleven easel carts were repulsed. Grigory quarrels with the chief of staff, who decided to shoot the red commander. News comes of the intention to disband the insurgent detachments. Gregory is removed from command big amount people, leaving a hundred. Melekhov receives a bad telegram from his relatives. He is given a month's leave.
Chapter 16
Daria manages to spoil the already not sweet life of Natalia. Natalya sets out to find out everything about her husband's life and goes to Prokhor's wife. Having learned nothing, she decides to talk with Aksinya. Astakhova proudly confirms her relationship with Grigory and now threatens to "not let him out of her hands." Natalia decides to wait for her husband's return for a final decision. Natalya shares her feelings with Ilinichnaya and admits that she has been pregnant for three months. He honestly talks about the unwillingness to have more children from Gregory. Ilyinichna wants to persuade Natalya to keep the pregnancy, but does not have time. Natalya secretly goes to the midwife. Returns dark, slightly alive. Pantelei, who brought the paramedic, did not have time to help her. After the inspection, everyone will find out that Natalia's insides are torn. Before her death, Natalia says goodbye to her children and leaves a message for Gregory through her son. By noon, Natalia is dying.
Chapter 17
Grigory's journey home from the front took two days. No matter how hard he drove the horses, he was still three days late for his wife's funeral. The mother told her son that children cry secretly at night, trying not to show their grief to others, that Natalya decided to take such a step from what Aksinya told her.
Chapter 18
Everything that happened, Gregory is going through hard. During the commemoration, Mishatka climbs on his knees and conveys motherly words: “Father will come - kiss him for me and tell him to feel sorry for you.” The boy forgot the rest. Pantelei Prokofievich and his son go to the field. Grigory takes Mishatka with him. Aksinya Melekhov sees once from afar. Before leaving, they unexpectedly meet. In a short and cold conversation, Grigory (as it seems to him) cuts all the ends. Vacation is over. It's time to return to the front. Chapter 19
Returning to the location of his unit, along with Prokhor Zykov, Grigory was extremely indignant, watching the Cossacks bring home the loot. From Semak, he learns that the White Guards allow privates to engage in looting. This does not keep the Cossacks from drunkenness, desertion, even the execution of officers. The Don army crosses the borders of the Khapersky district. The Cossacks, as in 1918, cease to demonstrate offensive activity. Neither the Khopertsy nor the rebels of the Upper Don wanted to fight outside their territories. They are satisfied with defensive tactics.
Chapter 20
The Red Army is preparing a large-scale offensive along the entire front line. Mamontov must destroy the communications of the Reds. He breaks through the front line and takes the city of Tambov. Chapter 21
On Saturday, ten days after Grigory had left, Dunyashka and Darya went for a swim. Daria was not in the mood. Previously, she complained of being unwell, crying in secret from everyone. Entering the water, Daria, having swum a little, lay down, folding her arms over her chest and shouting “Farewell, little women!”, went to the bottom. With great difficulty, they managed to bury the suicide according to all Christian customs and put it next to Peter.
Everything grew quieter in the Melekhovs' house. There is no news from Gregory at all. Aksinya communicates with the son of Gregory, Mishutka. Ilyinichna finds out about this. The mother quarrels with the woman of her son, declaring that she should not be her lawful wife. Aksinya ceases to greet all the Melekhovs and, as before, at every opportunity, tries to hug the boy, calling him Grigorievich. Another mobilization on the farm Tatarsky. Among those selected for the front is Pantelei Prokofievich Melekhov. After waiting some time, Panteley deserts. A punitive detachment arrives at the Melekhovs' house. Panteley is arrested. He is sent to the village of Karginskaya for trial.
Chapter 22
The court takes into account the merits of the son of Panteley Prokofievich and does not impose too severe a punishment on him. Panteley loses the rank of constable. On the farm, everyone lives in anticipation of the arrival of the Red detachments. The Melekhovs leave the farm.
Chapter 23
On September 18, the Cossacks, under the onslaught of the Reds, left Veshenskaya. Rumors reach the Cossacks about the generosity and kindness of the Bolsheviks towards the local population.
Chapter 24
Two and a half weeks later, having learned that the Red detachments had moved away from the Don, the Melekhovs returned to their home. According to an acquaintance, Pantelei obtains a document exempting him from being drafted to the front. The head of the family begins to revive the household. In Tatarsky, the dead Christonya and Anikushka are mournfully greeted. They also bring in General Melekhov, who has contracted typhus.
Chapter 25
It took the general a month to recover. He has an interest in household to interact with children. Melekhov is undergoing a medical re-examination commission. He is going with other men to retreat. On the day of departure, Grigory visits Aksinya and invites her to come with him. Aksinya agrees.
Chapter 26
Strings of convoys from the northern Don villages were heading south. Melekhov tried to find out about his relatives, who were also retreating along with others. Aksinya fell ill with typhus on the way. Gregory leaves it to strangers in one of the houses on their way.
Chapter 27
Without Aksinya, Grigory loses all interest in what is happening. The end of the war was near. The rebels were crushed. At the Belaya Clay farm, Melekhov is told about the death of his father, who was stricken with typhus. Melekhov buries Pantelei. Grigory Prokhor, who fell ill with relapsing fever, hastily takes him to the Kuban.
Chapter 28-29
Melekhov's friends help send him to Yekaterinodar for treatment. Gregory is on the mend. Evacuation to Turkey begins from Novorossiysk. Only wealthy families and the highest White Guard ranks have the opportunity to get on steamships. Melekhov sees no way to leave. He is waiting for the arrival of the Bolsheviks. At the moment the Reds enter Novorossiysk, Grigory is in the city.
Part 8
Chapter 1
Having recovered, Aksinya returns home to the farm. They say different things about Melekhov. Anxiety for Grigory makes Ilyinichna and Aksinya closer. She began to visit the Melekhovs. The family learns about Grigory's entry into the Red Army from Prokhor, who has arrived at the farm.
Chapter 2
Mishka Koshevoy appears on the Tatarsky farm. Dunyashka stands up for him before his mother. Mishka begins to manage a little, and Ilyinichna softens.
Chapter 3
Ilyinichna does not agree to the wedding of Dunyashka and Mishka. The girl threatens to leave completely, and the mother concedes. Played a wedding. The bear managed skillfully. Ilyinichna feels unnecessary. The mother lives in anticipation of her son. Soon she fell ill and died, never seeing Gregory again. Melekhov's children began to live with Aksinya.
Chapter 4
The bear quickly got fed up with household chores. It was crowded for him on the farm. He thought a lot about the injustice towards the forgiven whites who had gone over to the side of the Bolshevik government. Koshevoy believed that an emergency committee should deal with them. Mishka Koshevoy is appointed chairman of the revolutionary committee.
Chapter 5
Dissatisfaction with the incoming authorities is growing on the farm. People are poor. Koshevoy, for his wife's desire to talk to him about what is happening, accuses her of counter-revolutionary thoughts. About the fate of Grigory Melekhov, he announced a possible execution.
Chapter 6
Grigory is back in Tatarsky. Despite the cold reception from Mishka, the sister gathered the table and invited Aksinya and Prokhor. Mishka calls Grigory an enemy of the people, moves to his house and insists on Melekhov's registration in the Revolutionary Committee.
Chapter 7
From Prokhor, Melekhov hears about the death of old Listnitsky from typhus and about how Yevgeny shot himself, having discovered his wife's betrayal. A friend expresses concern for the fate of Gregory in connection with the uprising that broke out nearby. Melekhov can be declared the instigator. Grigory Melekhov decides to fulfill Koshevoy's demand and go to the Revolutionary Committee.
Chapter 8-9
Grigory in the revolutionary committee presents Mishka Koshevoy with all the necessary marks in the documents and leaves without saying goodbye. Melekhov, along with the children and some of the property, moves to Aksinya's house. Uncertainty haunts Gregory. He cannot find peace. At night, Dunyashka warns Grigory about the planned arrest. Gregory leaves.
Chapter 10
The announcement of the surplus provoked great unrest among the Cossacks. Cossacks unite in gangs. Yakov Fomin, a former friend of Grigory, led an uprising near the village of Veshenskaya.
Chapter 11
For two months, Grigory is hiding with Aksinya's aunt, after which he decides to go to the Yagodnoye estate. The people of Yakov's gang conspire him to go with them. Grigory leaves with Fomin's people.
Chapter 12
The men were fed up with the war. All attempts by Fomin to invite as many Cossacks as possible into his gang were unsuccessful. Yakov resorts to such forms of influence on the farmers as a threat.
Chapter 13
Melekhov does not approve of looting in the gang. Having fallen under fire from the Reds with his people, Fomin demonstrates the absolute absence of the qualities of a leader in him. Gregory sees this like no one else.
Chapter 14
In the middle of the Don, on an island, Fomin's gang, languishing from idleness, is waiting for the command's signal to act. Fomin's colleague Kaparin is trying to collude with Melekhov. Kaparin decides to kill Fomin and his people, and then come to the Reds. Grigory refuses and disarms Kaparin. Guessing about Kaparin's plans at night, the Fomins kill the conspirator.
Chapter 15-16
End of April. The gang is crossing the Don. They go to reunite with Maslak's gang. Fomin's people, instead of fighting for the happiness of the people, indulge in robberies. Gregory secretly leaves the gang at night.
Chapter 17
Melekhov secretly appears in Tatarsky and, meeting with Astakhova, persuades him to go with him to the Kuban. Aksinya agrees. On the way, Grigory and Aksinya meet an outpost. Aksinye, on the orders of Gregory, turns back and is wounded. In an unconscious state, Grigory takes Aksinya under the canopy of trees, where she dies without regaining consciousness.
Chapter 18
Melekhov loses everything that was dear to him. After aimless wanderings across the steppe, he joins the deserters. In a dream, Gregory always sees children, Aksinya, parents ... Unable to stand it, in the spring Gregory returns to Tatarskoye. He learns about the death of his daughter, who did not survive scarlet fever. Cossack Melekhov "stood at the gates of his native home, holding his son in his arms ... This was all that remained in his life, which still made him related to the earth and to all this huge world shining under the cold sun."
In one of the villages, the guy Nemorino lives passionately in love with the girl Adina, but his love is unrequited. She avoids not only him, but also other guys, and also says taunts
Mark Antony is in love with Cleopatra. His supporters laugh at him, calling him almost henpecked. Indeed, the Egyptian queen seemed to wrap Anthony with her charms, and he is completely devoted to his feelings for the beautiful Cleopatra.
A wonderful fairy tale about a black hen was written by Antony Pogorelsky for his ten-year-old nephew Alyosha Tolstoy. This boy later became a famous writer and poet.
At the end of the penultimate Turkish campaign, the Cossack Prokofy Melekhov brought home, to the village of Veshenskaya, a captive Turkish woman. From their marriage a son was born, named Panteley, as swarthy and black-eyed as his mother. Subsequently, Pantelei Prokofievich took up the arrangement of the economy and significantly expanded his land. He married a Cossack woman named Vasilisa Ilyinichna, and since then Turkish blood began to interbreed with Cossack. So, the eldest son of Panteley Prokofievich, Petro, went to his mother: he was short, snub-nosed and fair-haired; and the youngest, Grigory, was more reminiscent of his father: the same swarthy, hook-nosed, wildly handsome, of the same frenzied disposition. In addition to them, the Melekhov family consisted of their father's favorite Dunyashka and Peter's wife Daria.
In the early morning, Pantelei Prokofievich calls Grigory for fishing, during which he demands that his son leave alone Aksinya Astakhova, the wife of Stepan's neighbor Melekhov. Grigory and his friend Mitka Korshunov go to sell the caught carp to the rich merchant Mokhov and meet his daughter Elizabeth. Petro and Stepan leave for camps to collect, while Grigory continues to flirt with Aksinya.
When Aksinya was sixteen years old, she was raped by her own father, who was then killed by the girl's mother and brother. A year later, she was married to Stepan Astakhov, who, without forgiving the “offense”, began to beat Aksinya and walk around the zhalmerki. Therefore, when Grishka Melekhov began to show interest in her, Aksinya, who did not know love, to her horror, had a reciprocal feeling. Soon she converges with Gregory. The lovers do not hide their relationship, and everything becomes known to both Panteley Prokofievich and Stepan. He, having returned, begins to brutally beat Aksinya, and his father decides to quickly marry Grigory to Natalya, Mitka Korshunov's sister. Stepan Astakhov, having fought with the Melekhov brothers, becomes their sworn enemy. Aksinya tries, but cannot suppress her feelings for Grigory. The courtship of Panteley Prokofievich gives positive results, since Natalya Korshunova falls in love with Grigory. He, in turn, offers Aksinya to end their relationship. Grigory marries Natalia without feeling any feelings for her.
Mitka Korshunov takes Elizaveta Mokhova out fishing and rapes her there. Dirty rumors begin to spread around the farm, and Mitka goes to woo Elizabeth. But the girl refuses him, and Sergei Platonovich Mokhov unleashes the dogs on Korshunov. Grigory realizes that his feelings for Aksinya have not died. She outwardly reconciles with her husband, but continues to love Gregory.
Fedot Bodovskov meets Shtokman. Tom manages to stop the fight at the mill, during which Mitka Korshunov beats the merchant Mokhov. During interrogation by the investigator, Shtokman says that in 1907 he was in prison "for disorder" and was serving a link. Grigory confesses to Natalia that he does not love her. During a trip for brushwood, the Melekhov brothers meet Aksinya. Aksinya's connection with Grigory is renewed. Jack, Khristonya, Ivan Alekseevich Kotlyarov and Mishka Koshevoy come to Shtokman for readings on the history of the Don Cossacks. Grigory and Mitka Korshunov take the oath. Natalia decides to return to live with her parents. There is a quarrel between Grigory and Panteley Prokofievich, after which Grigory leaves home. At the merchant Mokhov, he meets the centurion Yevgeny Listnitsky and accepts an offer to work as a coachman on his estate Yagodnoye. Aksinya is hired as a cook for yard and seasonal workers. Aksinya and Grigory leave the farm, and Natalya returns to her parents. From the very first days, Listnitsky begins to show interest in Aksinya.
Valet and Ivan Alekseevich continue to visit Shtokman, who tells them about the struggle of the capitalist states for markets and colonies as the main reason for the impending world war. On Easter, Natalya, exhausted by the humiliation of her position, attempts suicide. Aksinya confesses to Grigory that she is expecting a child from him. Petro comes to visit his brother. Aksinya begs Grigory to take her with him to the mowing and gives birth to a girl on the way home. Gregory is summoned to military training; unexpectedly, Pantelei Prokofievich comes to him and brings him "on the right." Gregory leaves for a four-year service; on the way, his father informs him that Natalya survived, although she remained a cripple, and asks if Grigory will live with her when he returns. At the medical commission, they want to enroll Gregory in the guards, but due to non-standard external data (“Gangster mug ... Very wild”), they are enrolled in the army's Twelfth Cossack Regiment. On the very first day, Grigory begins friction with his superiors.
Natalia again comes to live with the Melekhovs. She still hopes for the return of Gregory to the family. Dunyashka begins to go to games and tells Natalya about her relationship with Mishka Koshev. An investigator arrives at the village and arrests Shtokman; during a search, illegal literature is found on him. During interrogation, it turns out that Shtokman is a member of the RSDLP. He is taken away from Veshenskaya.
Gregory's regiment stands in the Radziwillovo estate. Watching the officers, Grigory feels an invisible wall between himself and them; this feeling is reinforced by the incident with Prokhor Zykov, who was beaten up by a sergeant-major during an exercise. Before the beginning of spring, the Cossacks, brutalized with boredom, rape Franya, the young maid of the manager, with the whole platoon; Gregory, who runs to her aid, is tied up and thrown into the stable, promising to kill if he let it slip.
The war begins, and the Cossacks are taken to the Russian-Austrian border. In his first battle, Gregory kills a man, and the image of the hacked Austrian disturbs his conscience. The regiment of Gregory, withdrawn from the line of battle, receives reinforcements from the Don. Grigory meets his brother, Mishka Koshevoy, Anikushka and Stepan Astakhov. In a conversation with Peter, he admits that he is homesick and tormented by a forced murder. Petro advises to beware of Stepan, who promised to kill Gregory in the first battle. Grigory finds a diary from the murdered Cossack, which describes the latter's affair with the fallen Elizaveta Mokhova. A Cossack nicknamed Chubaty gets into Grigory's platoon; mocking Grigory's feelings, he says that it is a sacred thing to kill an enemy in battle. Gregory is severely wounded in the head. Covered by a patriotic impulse, Yevgeny Listnitsky leaves for the army to command a platoon. Podsaul Kalmykov advises him to make acquaintance with the volunteer Ilya Bunchuk. The Melekhovs receive news of Grigory's death, and twelve days later it turns out from Peter's letter that Grigory is alive, moreover, he was awarded the St. George Cross for saving a wounded officer and promoted to junior officer. Having received a letter from Grigory, where he sends her "a bow and the lowest respect", Natalya decides to go to Yagodnoye, to beg Aksinya to return her husband. On the eve of the next offensive, a shell hits the house where Prokhor Zykov, Chubaty and Grigory are staying. Grigory, wounded in the eye, is sent to a hospital in Moscow. Tanya, the daughter of Gregory and Aksinya, falls ill with scarlet fever and soon dies. Aksinya converges with Listnitsky, who arrived on leave due to injury. Garanzha, Grigory's neighbor in the hospital ward, in conversations with the Cossack, speaks dismissively of the autocratic system and reveals the true causes of the war. Grigory feels with horror that all his former ideas about the tsar, the homeland and about his Cossack military duty are collapsing. Gregory is transferred to the hospital on Tverskaya, to heal the opened wound; there, a person of the imperial family visits his chamber. For disrespectful behavior in the presence of the highest guest, Gregory is deprived of food for three days, and then sent home. Grigory goes to Yagodnoe. From the stableman of Sasha's grandfather, he learns about Aksinya's connection with Listnitsky. Grigory beats the centurion with a whip and, leaving Aksinya, returns to his family, to Natalya.
Having risen to the rank of officer, Bunchuk conducts Bolshevik propaganda in the troops. Listnitsky denounces him, Bunchuk deserts. At the front, Ivan Alekseevich meets Jack; it turns out that Shtokman is in Siberia. Grigory recalls how he saved the life of Stepan Astakhov in battle, which, however, did not reconcile them. Gradually, Grigory begins to develop friendly relations with Chubaty, who tends to deny the war. Together with him and Mishka Koshev, Grigory participates in the "arrest" of wormy cabbage soup and takes them to his hundredth commander. In autumn, Natalia gives birth to twins. During the next offensive, Grigory is wounded in the arm. Rumors reach Peter about the infidelity of Daria, who cohabited with Stepan Astakhov. Wounded on the battlefield, Stepan goes missing, and Petro decides to knock out Daria's eye so that no one else will covet her. In turn, Pantelei Prokofievich takes measures to rein in his daughter-in-law, but this does not lead to anything good. The February Revolution arouses restrained anxiety among the Cossacks. Listnitsky tells the merchant Mokhov that, as a result of Bolshevik propaganda, the soldiers turned into gangs of criminals, unbridled and wild, and the Bolsheviks themselves are "worse than cholera bacilli." The commander of the brigade, where Petro Melekhov serves, calls on the Cossacks to stay away from the unrest that has begun. Hoping for a speedy end to the war, the Cossacks swear allegiance to the Provisional Government. They meet the order to return to the front with an open murmur. Daria comes to the front to see Peter. Listnitsky is assigned to a pro-monarchist regiment; soon, in connection with the July events, he was sent to Petrograd. Kornilov becomes supreme commander; officers pin their hopes on him to save Russia, the Cossacks "crumple". Ivan Alekseevich makes a coup in his regiment and is appointed centurion; he refuses to go to Petrograd. Bunchuk arrives at the front to agitate for the Bolsheviks and runs into Kalmykov. The deserter arrests Kalmykov to be shot later. In Petrograd, Listnitsky witnesses the Bolshevik coup. Having received news of the change of power, the Cossacks return home.
Ivan Alekseevich, Mitka Korshunov, Prokhor Zykov, and after them Petro Melekhov, who had fled from the Bolshevik regiment, returned to the village. It becomes known that Gregory went over to the side of the Bolsheviks, already in the rank of platoon officer. After the coup, he receives an appointment as commander of a hundred. Gregory falls under the influence of his colleague Efim Izvarin, who advocates the complete autonomy of the Don Cossack Region. Izvarin explains to Grigory that the only thing the Bolsheviks have in common with the Cossacks is that the Bolsheviks are for peace, and the Cossacks have long been tired of fighting. But their paths will part as soon as the war is over and the Bolsheviks stretch out their hands to the Cossack possessions. In November 17, Grigory met Podtelkov. Bunchuk leaves for Rostov, where he receives the task of organizing a machine-gun team. The machine gunners send Anna Pogudko to him. Ivan Alekseevich and Khristonya go to the congress of veterans and meet Grigory there. Podtelkov is elected chairman, and Krivoshlykov - secretary of the Cossack Military Revolutionary Committee, which declared itself the government on the Don. Another contender for power over the Cossacks is the ataman of the Military Circle Kaledin. Chernetsov's detachment breaks the forces of the Red Guards. Grigory, at the head of two hundred, supported by Bunchuk's machine gunners, goes into battle and receives another wound (in the leg). Chernetsov, along with four dozen young officers, was captured. All were brutally killed on the orders of Podtelkov, despite the opposition of Grigory and Golubov. Pantelei Prokofievich brings the wounded Grigory home. His father and brother are disapproving of his Bolshevik views; Gregory himself, after the massacre of Chernetsov, is experiencing a mental crisis. News arrives of Kaledin's suicide.
Bunchuk recovers from typhus; begins his romance with Anna, who cared for him during his illness. Listnitsky leaves Rostov together with the Kornilovites. Golubov and Bunchuk arrest the leaders of the Military Circle. Bunchuk is appointed commandant of the Revolutionary Tribunal, and he begins to actively shoot "counter-revolutionaries". Jack calls on the Cossacks to go to the rescue of the Red Guard units, but he persuades only Koshevoy; Grigory, Khristonya and Ivan Alekseevich refuse. In connection with the raid of the Bolsheviks on the village of Migulinskaya, a Cossack meeting is held on the Maidan. A visiting centurion agitates the Cossacks to form a detachment to fight the Reds and protect Veshki. Miron Grigoryevich Korshunov, father of Natalya and Mitka, is elected ataman. The centurion offers Gregory for the post of commander, but he is reminded of the Red Guard past and Peter is appointed. Prokhor Zykov, Mitka, Khristonya and other Cossacks are enrolled in the regiment. However, they are convinced that there will be no war.
Together with everyone, Grigory opposes Podtelkov. Anna dies in battle. Podtyolkov negotiates the terms of surrender, to which Bunchuk objects. The prisoners are sentenced to death, Podtelkov and Krivoshlykov - to hanging. Mitka, who volunteered for the firing squad, kills Bunchuk. Before the execution, Podtyolkov accuses Gregory of betrayal, in response, Gregory recalls the massacre of Chernetsov's detachment. The bear of Koshevoy and Jack is being caught by the Cossacks; Knave is killed, and Mishka, in the hope of correction, is sentenced to punishment with whips.
April 1918 A civil war is going on on the Don. Pantelei Prokofievich and Miron Korshunov are elected delegates to the Military Circle; General Krasnov becomes the ataman of the army. Petro Melekhov leads a hundred against the Reds. In a conversation with Grigory, he tries to find out his brother's mood, to find out if he is going to return to the Reds. Instead of being sent to the front, Koshevoy is appointed as an atar. Listnitsky's shattered arm is amputated. Soon he will marry a widow dead friend and returns to Yagodnoe. Stepan Astakhov comes from German captivity; he goes to Aksinya and persuades her to return home. For a humane attitude towards the prisoners, Gregory is removed from the command of a hundred, he again accepts a platoon. Panteley Prokofievich comes to Grigory in the regiment and is engaged in looting there. During the retreat, Grigory arbitrarily leaves the front and returns home. Petro runs after him from the Bolshevik regiment. The Melekhovs decide to wait out the Red offensive without leaving the farm. Several Red Army soldiers come to stay with them, one of whom begins to look for a quarrel with Grigory. Panteley Prokofievich cripples the horses of Peter and Grigory so that they would not be taken away. Red becomes aware that Grigory is an officer; after crippling a Red Guard who tried to kill him, Grigory flees from the farm. Ivan Alekseevich is elected chairman of the executive committee. Koshevoy - his deputy. The Cossacks hand over their weapons.
Rumors are spreading around the Don about the emergency and tribunals, which are administering a quick and unjust trial of the Cossacks who served with the Whites, and Petro seeks intercession from Yakov Fomin, head of the district revolutionary committee. Ivan Alekseevich quarrels with Grigory, who does not want to recognize the merits of Soviet power; Koshevoy offers to arrest Grigory, but he manages to leave for another village. According to the list compiled by Koshev, Miron Korshunov, Avdeich Brekh and several other old people are arrested. Shtokman is announced in Veshenskaya. The news comes about the execution of the Cossacks. Yielding to Lukinichna's persuasion, Petro digs out of the common grave at night and brings the corpse of Miron Grigorievich to the Korshunovs. Shtokman appears at the Cossack meeting and announces that the executed were enemies of the Soviet regime. The execution list also includes Pantelei and Grigory Melekhov and Fedot Bodovskov. Having learned about the return of Gregory, the Veshensky communists discuss his future fate; Grigory, meanwhile, runs away again and hides with relatives. Panteley Prokofievich, who has suffered typhus, cannot avoid arrest.
Riots begin in Kazanskaya. Antip Sinilin, son of Avdeich Brekh, takes part in the beating of Koshevoy; he, having rested up with Stepan Astakhov, is hiding from the farm. Having learned about the beginning of the uprising, Gregory returns home. Peter is chosen as the commander of the cavalry hundred. Defeated by the Reds, Petro, Fedot Bodovskov and other Cossacks, deceived by the promise to save their lives, surrender, and Koshevoy, with the silent support of Ivan Alekseevich, kills Peter; Of all the Cossacks who were with him, only Stepan Astakhov and Antip Brekhovich managed to escape. Gregory is appointed commander of the Veshensky regiment, and after that - the commander of one of the rebel divisions. Avenging for the death of his brother, he stops taking prisoners. In the battles near Sviridov and for Karginskaya, his Cossacks smashed squadrons of the red cavalry. Departing from black thoughts, Grigory begins to drink and walk around the zhalmerki. During another drinking bout, Medvedev proposes to remove Kudinov, the commander of all rebel forces, and appoint Grigory in his place in order to continue the war against the Reds and the Cadets; Gregory refuses. In the battle near Klimovka, he personally cuts down four Red Guards, after which he experiences a severe nervous attack. Having left with his orderly Prokhor Zykov to Veshki, Grigory on the way releases from prison the relatives of the Cossacks who left with the Reds, arrested by Kudinov. Natalya learns about her husband's numerous infidelities, a quarrel occurs between them.
Meanwhile, the Serdobsky regiment, where Koshevoy, Shtokman and Kotlyarov serve, goes over to the side of the rebels in full force; even before the riots begin, Shtokman manages to send Mishka with a report to the headquarters. During a spontaneous rally, Shtokman is killed, and Ivan Alekseevich, along with other communists of the regiment, is put under arrest. Panteley Prokofievich becomes a witness of a chance meeting between his son and Aksinya and, thinking about who Grigory was born into such a male, comes to a logical conclusion. In Aksinya, a long-term feeling for Grigory wakes up; that same evening, taking advantage of Stepan's absence, she asks Daria to call her loved one. Their connection is renewed. Having learned about the transition to the rebels of the Serdobsky regiment, Grigory rushes to Veshki to save Kotlyarov and Mishka and find out who killed Peter. The captives, beaten beyond recognition, are driven to the Tatarsky farm, where they are met by the relatives of the Cossacks who died together with Peter Melekhov, thirsting for revenge. Daria accuses Ivan Alekseevich of the death of her husband and shoots him, Antip Brekhovich helps to finish off Kotlyarov. An hour after the beating of the captives, Gregory, who had driven his horse to death, appears on the farm.
Agreeing to lead a breakthrough to the Don, Grigory decides to take Aksinya with him, and leave Natalya and her children at home. Revenging for the death of Ivan Alekseevich and Shtokman, Mishka Koshevoy sets fire to the houses of the clergy and wealthy Cossacks. Before burning the Korshunovs' hut, Koshevoy kills old grandfather Grishaka. Landmarks begin to be subjected to intense artillery fire. The Reds are preparing to cross the Don in the area where the Gromkovskaya hundreds are located, where Grigory immediately goes. Soon Prokhor brings Aksinya to him in Veshki.
To the complete surprise of the Gromkovskaya hundred Cossacks, occupied exclusively by moonshine and women, a Red Guard regiment is crossing the Don. Gromkovtsy in a panic run to Veshenskaya, where Grigory manages to pull up the horse hundreds of the Karginsky regiment. Soon he learns that the Tatars have abandoned the trenches. Trying to stop the farmers, Grigory beats Khristonya, who is walking at an unbridled camel gallop, with a whip; Panteley Prokofievich, who runs tirelessly and briskly, also gets it, whom Grigory, who does not recognize from the back, calls son of a bitch and threatens to kill. Having quickly gathered and brought the peasants to their senses, Grigory orders them to join the Semyonov hundred. The Reds are on the offensive; with machine-gun bursts, the Cossacks force them to return to their original positions.
To the horror of Ilyinichna, the talkative Mishatka informs the Red Army soldier who has entered the house that his father is in command of all the Cossacks. On the same day, the Reds are knocked out of Veshki and Pantelei Prokofievich returns home. After leaving the banquet in honor of General Secrets, Grigory comes to visit Aksinya and finds only Stepan. Returning home, Aksinya willingly drinks for the health of her lover, and Prokhor, who is looking for Grigory, sees with amazement that he is sitting at the same table with Stepan. At dawn, Gregory arrives home. Talking to Dunyashka, he orders her to leave even thoughts of Koshevoy. Grigory experiences an unprecedented surge of tenderness for Natalia. The next day, tormented by vague forebodings, he leaves the farm. Grigory, together with his chief of staff Kopylov, is summoned to a meeting with General Fitskhelaurov. During the reception, a quarrel occurs between Grigory and the general, and the latter threatens to remove Grigory from command of the division, to which Grigory declares that he obeys only Kudinov, and promises, in which case, to set his Cossacks on Fitskhelaurov. After this skirmish, a strange indifference takes possession of Gregory; for the first time in his life, he decides to withdraw from direct participation in the battle.
Mitka Korshunov arrives at the Tatarsky farm. The cruelty characteristic of him from childhood found a worthy application in the punitive detachment, and in a short time Mitka rose to the rank of coroner. First of all, having visited his native ashes, he goes to stay with the Melekhovs, who cordially welcome the guest. After making inquiries about the Koshevs and finding out that Mishka's mother and children remained at home, Mitka and his comrades kill them. Upon learning of this, Pantelei Prokofievich drives him out of the yard, and Mitka, returning to his punitive detachment, goes to restore order in the Ukrainian settlements of the Donetsk district.
Daria goes to the front to deliver ammunition and returns in a depressed state. The commander of the Don Army, General Sidorin, arrives at the farm. Pantelei Prokofievich brings bread and salt to the general and representatives of the allies, and Daria, among other Cossack widows, is awarded the St. George medal and handed her five hundred rubles. It categorically reflects all the attempts of Panteley Prokofievich to take possession of the money received "for Peter", although she gives Ilyinichna forty rubles for a commemoration for the deceased. The old people suspect that Daria is going to remarry, but she has a different concern in her heart. Daria admits to Natalya that during her trip she contracted syphilis and, since this disease is incurable, she is going to lay hands on herself. Not wanting to suffer alone, she tells Natalia that Grigory has reunited with Aksinya.
Shortly after the retreat of the Reds, Gregory is removed from the post of division commander and, despite his requests to be sent to the rear for health reasons, he is appointed centurion of the Nineteenth Regiment. The Cossack divisions are being disbanded: the entire command staff is being replaced, and the privates are replenishing the numbered regiments of the Don Army. Arriving at a new place of service, Grigory receives tragic news from home and, taking Prokhor with him, leaves, shocked by grief that suddenly fell upon him.
After a conversation with Daria, Natalya lives like in a dream. She tries to find out something from Prokhor's wife, but the cunning woman remembers her husband's order to "be silent, like a dead one", and then Natalya goes to Aksinya. Having gone along with Ilyinichnaya to weed melons, Natalya tells her mother-in-law about everything. A black cloud covers the sky, a downpour begins, and during the peals of thunder, the exhausted, sobbing Natalya prays to God to punish Gregory. Having calmed down a little, she tells Ilyinichna that she loves her husband and does not wish him harm, but she will no longer give birth from him: she has been pregnant for the third month and is going to go to grandmother Kapitonovna to get rid of the fetus. On the same day, Natalya stealthily leaves the house and returns only in the evening, bleeding. An urgently called paramedic, after examining Natalya, says that her uterus is completely torn and she will die by lunchtime. Natalya says goodbye to the children, upset that she will not see Grigory. She dies soon after.
Grigory arrives on the third day after Natalya's funeral. In his own way, he loved his wife, and now his suffering is exacerbated by guilt over this death. Grigory becomes close to the children, but after two weeks, unable to bear the anguish, he returns to the front. On the way, he and Prokhor now and then meet Cossacks carrying carts with looted goods, and deserters: the Don army is decomposing at the moment of its highest success.
Shortly after Grigory's departure, Daria commits suicide by drowning herself in the Don. Ilyinichna forbids Mishatka to visit Aksinya, and a quarrel occurs between the women. In August, Panteley Prokofievich was called to the front; he deserts twice and eventually obtains a certificate of inability to walk. Because of the danger of the Reds approaching Veshki, the Melekhovs leave Tatarsky for two weeks. The murdered Christonya and Anikushka are brought from the front, followed by Grigory, who is ill with typhus. Having recovered, he, together with Aksinya and Prokhor, leaves the farm. On the way, Aksinya falls ill with typhus, and Grigory is forced to leave her. Arriving in Belaya Glina at the end of January, he learns that Pantelei Prokofievich had died of typhus the day before. After burying his father, Gregory himself falls ill with relapsing fever and survives only thanks to the devotion and dedication of Prokhor. Having moved to Novorossiysk, they try to evacuate by boat to Turkey, but, seeing the futility of their attempts, they decide to stay at home.
Aksinya returns home; anxiety for Grigory's life brings her closer to the Melekhovs. It becomes known that Stepan left for the Crimea, and soon Prokhor, who lost his arm, returns and reports that he and Grigory entered the Cavalry, where Grigory took command of the squadron. Ilyinichna is looking forward to her son, but instead of him, Mishka Koshevoy comes to the Melekhovs; Ilyinichna, who is trying to drive him away, runs into Dunyashka's open resistance. Mishka continues to go to them, not at all embarrassed by the fact that his hands are stained with Peter's blood, and in the end he achieves his goal: Ilyinichna agrees to his marriage with Dunyashka and soon dies, without waiting for Grigory to return. Koshevoy ceases to be engaged in farming, believing that the Soviet power is still in danger, mainly because of such elements as Grigory and Prokhor Zykov, about which Koshevoy informs the latter. Mishka believes that Gregory's service in the Red Army does not wash away his guilt for participating in the White movement, and upon returning home he will have to answer for the rebel uprising. Soon Mishka was appointed chairman of the Veshensky Revolutionary Committee. Upon learning of the imminent demobilization and return of Grigory, Dunyashka asks her husband what awaits his brother for serving with the Cossacks, and Koshevoy replies that they can be shot.
Grigory goes home with the firm intention of taking care of the household and living near his children, but a conversation with Koshev convinces him of the unrealizability of such plans. Having visited Prokhor, Grigory learns about the uprising that has begun in the Voronezh region and understands that this could threaten him, a former officer and rebel, with trouble. In the meantime, Prokhor talks about the death of Yevgeny Listnitsky, who shot himself because of his wife's infidelity. Yakov Fomin, met in Veshki, advises Grigory to leave the house for a while, as the arrests of officers began. Having taken the children, Grigory goes to live with Aksinya. Thanks to his sister, he manages to avoid arrest and escape from the farm. By the will of circumstances, he falls into the Fomin gang and is forced to stay in it. Fomin is going to destroy the commissars and communists and establish his own, Cossack power, but these good intentions do not find support among the population, who is even more tired of the war than of the Soviet regime.
Gregory decides to leave the gang at the first opportunity. Having met a familiar farmer, he asks to convey a bow to Prokhor and Dunyashka, and to tell Aksinya to wait for his imminent return. Meanwhile, the gang suffers defeat after defeat and the fighters are engaged in looting with might and main. Soon, the red units complete the rout and out of the entire Fomin gang, only five people remain alive, including Grigory and Fomin himself. The fugitives settle on a small island opposite the Rubizhny farm. At the end of April, they crossed the Don to merge with Maslak's gang. Gradually, forty people from various small gangs join Fomin, and he invites Grigory to take the place of chief of staff. Grigory refuses and soon runs away from Fomin. Arriving at the farm at night, he goes to Aksinya and calls her to go to the Kuban, temporarily leaving the children in the care of Dunyashka. Leaving the house and household, Aksinya leaves with Grigory. After resting in the steppe, they are about to move on when they come across an outpost on their way. The fugitives manage to get away from the chase, but one of the bullets fired after them mortally wounds Aksinya. Shortly before dawn, without regaining consciousness, she dies in the arms of Gregory. Having buried Aksinya, Grigory raises his head and sees above him the black sky and the dazzlingly shining black disk of the sun.
Having wandered aimlessly across the steppe, he decides to go to the Slashchevskaya oak forest, where deserters live in dugouts. From Chumakov, whom Grigory met there, he learns about the defeat of the gang and the death of Fomin. For six months he lives, trying not to think about anything and driving poisonous longing from his heart, and at night he dreams of children, Aksinya and other dead loved ones. In early spring, without waiting for the amnesty promised by May Day, Gregory decides to return home. Approaching his home, he sees Mishatka, and the son is all that still makes Grigory related to the earth and to the whole huge world shining under the cold sun.
Search
We may notify you of new articles,